Perkins School for the Blind (first) opens.

(Aug.) Originally the New England Asylum for the Blind, it is founded by Dr. John Dix Fisher and is located at 140 Pleasant Street. It begins with six students and Samuel Gridley Howe is the its first director. Incorporated on March 2, 1829, it is the first school for the blind in the U.S. and is renamed for Thomas Handasyd Perkins, after he donates his home at 17 Pearl Street as the school’s home (second) in 1833. The school moves to East Broadway (third) in 1839,* opens a kindergarten and elementary school in Jamaica Plain in 1887,* and moves to Watertown (fourth) in 1912.