The old North Parish of Bridgewater that grew into the Shoe City, where Thomas Edison lit the streets from underground wires in 1883 and two champion boxers made it the City of Champions.

Plymouth County · Record checked October 12, 2026

105,643Population2020 census1
1821Became a townas North Bridgewater, renamed Brockton in 18741
1883Edison's switchthe world's first three-wire underground electric system1
45 of 53Shoe factoriesfactories on the 1882 bird's-eye view that made shoes2
24National Registerplaces, all still standing3

Then and now

The same town 144 years apart. Click either map to look closer.

Bird's-eye view map of Brockton, Massachusetts from 1882 by Albert Poole, restored by KNOWOL

1882

The bird's-eye view

By Albert Poole

Brockton drawn from the sky by Albert Poole, a Brockton native, a year after it became a city. Of the 53 manufacturing establishments in the legend, at least 45 made shoes, and 16 of the 23 buildings drawn around the border are shoe factories.2

More about this map
Map of Brockton, Massachusetts in 2026, with Main Street, Waldo Lake and Stonehouse Hill

2026

Brockton today

By KNOWOL

Shaded relief from USGS elevation data with Main Street, Montello Street, Pleasant Street, Warren Avenue and Reynolds Memorial Highway, plus Waldo Lake, Ames Pond, Cleveland Pond, Bigney Pond and Stonehouse Hill.4

See the 2026 printMore about this map

The story of Brockton

The week Edison came to town

In 1883 Thomas Edison came to Brockton and stayed a week. He was there for October 1, when the Edison Electric Lighting Station opened the first three-wire underground lighting system ever installed. The city's centennial book says the buried wires were especially welcome because big, beautiful trees shaded the main streets. Brockton could also claim the first theater lit from a central station, and a fire-engine house wired to light every lamp at night and turn the horses loose when the alarm struck. For two years it was the Edison company's show plant, and other cities came to look and copy it. Edison also came to Brockton to see the first car run on its electric street railway, the first built for electric power.5678

Norwood, Standish, Allerton or Avon

By 1870 plenty of people in North Bridgewater were tired of a long name that got mixed up with other towns. At a meeting in January 1871 they floated Standish, Madison, Pyrola, Oriole, Langdon, Gaston, Aberdale, Alden, Montello and Norwood, and Norwood came out ahead. A few weeks later the town voted to ask the Legislature for Standish instead. It took until 1874 to settle. The act that finally passed let the town pick Brockton, Allerton or Avon. Ira Copeland had suggested Brockton after hearing a Canadian conductor call out Brockville, Ontario, and Brockton won 1,081 votes, about 72 percent. North Bridgewater became Brockton on May 5, 1874.9101

Shoes, a fair and a Swedish song

During the Civil War Brockton was America's largest producer of shoes, and the trade shaped everything. On Albert Poole's 1882 view, at least 45 of the 53 factories in the legend made shoes. A federal report quoted in 1921 said Brockton's employees owned 90 percent of the homes in the city. In the fall there was the Brockton Fair, which a 1928 county history called the only fair in America that printed its own daily newspaper. Shoe work drew newcomers too. In 1870 the famous Swedish singer Christine Nilsson gave a concert for the Bethesda Lutheran Church at Campello, and when she sang Old Folks at Home many of her countrymen in the audience cried.12111213

Through the years

25 moments from 1649 to today.

  1. 1649Ousamequin, known as Massasoit, sells the land called Saughtucket to Myles Standish, and the English rename it Bridgewater.1
  2. 1821On June 15 the northern part of Bridgewater becomes the town of North Bridgewater.1
  3. 1865In a fire engine contest for a silver trumpet, the engine Protector wins by throwing water 220 feet.14
  4. 1870The Swedish singer Christine Nilsson gives a concert in town for the Bethesda Lutheran Church at Campello.13
  5. 1871After weighing names from Norwood to Pyrola, the town votes to ask the Legislature to rename it Standish.9
  6. 1874The Legislature lets North Bridgewater choose Brockton, Allerton or Avon. Brockton wins, and the new name takes effect May 5.10
  7. 1874The Brockton Fair is held for the first time.15
  8. 1875Brockton trades slices of land with South Abington and East Bridgewater, redrawing the town line.15
  9. 1876The Howard and Lyman Blocks go up across Main Street from today's City Hall.16
  10. 1877Brockton's first telephone wire is strung on February 1, from a photographer's studio at Main and Centre Streets.15
  11. 1880Montello, empty land until now, gets its first house lots west of the railroad.17
  12. 1881Brockton becomes a city on April 9.1
  13. 1882Albert Poole draws his bird's-eye view of the city.2
  14. 1883Thomas Edison spends a week in Brockton and opens the world's first three-wire underground lighting system on October 1.5
  15. 1884The Central Fire Station goes up on Pleasant Street, the first electrified firehouse in the nation.18
  16. 1892Work starts on City Hall, finished in 1894 with Civil War murals in its grand hall.19
  17. 1895The city's new history describes Marshall's Corner as an old factory district near the Indian cave at Stone House Hill.20
  18. 1896Brockton becomes the first city in the country to abolish its railroad grade crossings.1
  19. 1898W. B. Mason is founded here to supply the shoe industry.1
  20. 1902George G. Snow gives the city its fountain and four-faced clock.21
  21. 1925Daniel W. Field gives the city the land for D.W. Field Park.22
  22. 1928The fieldstone tower on Tower Hill is built from stones gathered in the park.23
  23. 1941Thirteen Brockton firefighters die when the roof of the burning Strand Theatre collapses on March 10.1
  24. 1953The Brockton VA hospital opens, then the largest and most expensive VA hospital in the country.24
  25. 2020Brockton becomes the first city in New England with a majority-Black population.1

Places to see

Places worth a visit in Brockton today.

  • Brockton Edison power station70 School Street. Edison's 1883 underground lighting plant.
  • Central Fire Station40 Pleasant Street. The nation's first electrified firehouse.
  • City Hall45 School Street. Romanesque Revival, with Civil War murals.
  • Snow Fountain and ClockNorth Main and East Main Streets. George G. Snow's gift of 1902.
  • Fuller Craft MuseumOak Street. Contemporary craft, founded 1946.Visit their website
  • D.W. Field ParkNorthern Brockton. 650 acres and seven ponds.Visit their website
  • Tower on Tower HillD.W. Field Park. Fieldstone tower of 1928, opens at Towerfest.
  • Waldo LakeD.W. Field Park. Made in the 1930s for the park.
  • Stonehouse HillSouthwest of Marshall's Corner. Site of the old Indian cave.
  • Campello stationCampello. Campello was Plain Village until 1850.

On the National Register

All 24 places in Brockton on the National Register of Historic Places that still stand today, oldest first, and why each one matters.3

  • South Street Historic District

    Listed 1983 · Roughly South St. from Main St. to Warren Ave.

    South Street was a fashionable address from about 1850 to 1915, with houses in many styles, most of them Colonial Revival. The South Street Methodist Church of 1880 is now homes; the South Congregational Church of 1854 was torn down in the early 1990s.25

  • Curtis Building

    Built 1870 · Listed 1982 · 105 to 109 Main St.

    The three-story brick building was built in 1870, and is a fine local example of Romanesque styling. It features panel brick pilasters on the corners, and panel brick decoration in the cornices.26

  • Forest Avenue School

    Built 1875 · Listed 1982 · Memorial Drive

    A one-room schoolhouse built in 1875 on Forest Avenue and used until 1963. It was moved within the city in 1969 to the Brockton High School grounds, where it's the Little Red Schoolhouse Museum.27

  • Howard Block

    Built 1876 · Listed 1982 · 93 to 97 Main St.

    Built in 1876, it forms (along with the adjacent Lyman Block), an important nexus of commercial development of the post-Civil War era in Brockton. The block listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.28

  • Lyman Block

    Built 1876 · Listed 1982 · 83 to 91 Main St.

    Built in 1876 for a local business group, it is a fine local example of Italianate style, and one of the elements of a group of four well-preserved 19th-century commercial buildings in the city. The block was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.16

  • Brockton Edison Electric Illuminating Company Power Station

    Built 1883 · Listed 1987 · 70 School St.

    One of the earliest power plants built by Thomas Edison. It opened on October 1, 1883, with three dynamos for about 1,600 lamps.8

  • Central Fire Station

    Built 1884 to 1885 · Listed 1977 · 40 Pleasant St.

    The city's first brick firehouse and the nation's first electrified one, fed by an underground cable from the nearby power plant built under Thomas Edison's supervision. It's a three-story Second Empire building with a mansard roof.18

  • Dr. Edgar Everett Dean House

    Built 1884 · Listed 1978 · 81 Green St.

    A Queen Anne house built in 1884 for Dr. Edgar Everett Dean, a prominent local physician. It's one of the few surviving houses by Wesley Lyng Minor, the architect of City Hall.29

  • Gardner J. Kingman House

    Built 1886 · Listed 1977 · 309 Main St.

    The first brick house built in the city, designed by Wesley Lyng Minor for Gardner Kingman, a businessman prominent in the shoe industry and civic affairs. A large terra cotta floral panel fills its front gable.30

  • Franklin Block

    Built 1888 · Listed 1989 · 1102 to 1110 Main St.

    The three-story brick Romanesque Revival-style building was built in 1888. Its construction marked the high point in the economic recovery of the city's Campello neighborhood, which had been devastated by fire in 1853, and is one of two 19th-century buildings in the area.31

  • Brockton City Hall

    Built 1892 to 1894 · Listed 1976 · 45 School St.

    Designed by local architect Wesley Lyng Minor, it was the first building made to house the city's offices, and it fills a whole block. Its grand hall has Civil War murals painted by Richard Holland and Mortimer Lamb in 1893.19

  • Goldthwaite Block

    Built 1892 · Listed 1982 · 99 to 103 Main St.

    Built in 1892, it forms part of one of the city's best-preserved assemblages of 19th-century commercial architecture, alongside the Lyman Block and Howard Block. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.32

  • Moses Packard House

    Built 1897 · Listed 1978 · 647 Main St.

    Built in 1897 by Moses Packard, a prominent local shoemaker, it's one of the city's finest Queen Anne houses, with a stone first floor and a three-story turret.33

  • Old Post Office Building

    Built 1898 · Listed 1978 · Crescent St.

    The two story brick Colonial Revival-style post office was built in 1898 and expanded in 1932. It was designed under the auspices of the federal government's supervising architect, James Knox Taylor, as a copy of Independence Hall in Philadelphia.34

  • Snow Fountain and Clock

    Built 1902 · Listed 1977 · N. Main and E. Main Sts.

    Given to the city in 1902 by George G. Snow, who lived nearby. A four-faced clock by E. Howard and Co. stands on a 15-foot column over a fountain and horse trough of Quincy granite.21

  • New England Telephone and Telegraph Engineering Office

    Built 1923 · Listed 2019 · 47 Pleasant St.

    A Classical Revival building by Brockton architect Charles Olson that housed support services for the telephone company's main exchange until about 1950. It was listed for its architecture and the telephone company's part in Brockton's 20th-century growth.35

  • Howard Home for Aged Men

    Built 1924 · Listed 2016 · 940 Belmont St.

    Built in 1924, it was one of two institutions in the city specifically for the care of elderly men. It was taken over by the VA in 1949, and is being rehabilitated for use as veteran housing.36

  • D.W. Field Park

    Listed 2000 · Between Pond St., Avon St., and Pleasant St.

    Daniel W. Field's 1925 gift to the city: 650 acres of fields, woods and a chain of seven ponds and lakes along Beaver Brook, reaching into Avon. Its fieldstone observation tower on Tower Hill was built in 1928 from stones gathered in the park.23

    Visit their website

  • Rocky Marciano House

    Built 1925 · Listed 2025 · 168 Dover Street

    The two-family house facing James Edgar Park where Rocky Marciano lived with his parents and five siblings from 1943 to 1953. It was listed on the National Register in August 2025.37

  • Brockton VA Hospital Historic District

    Built 1950 to 1953 · Listed 2022 · 940 Belmont St.

    Ground was broken in 1950 on land the city bought and gave to the federal government, and the hospital opened in 1953. At the time it was the largest and most expensive VA facility in the country, with more than 20 buildings on over 140 acres.24

  • Centre and Montello Streets Historic District

    Listed 2015 · 43 to 51, 53 to 61, 63 to 77, 91 to 93 Centre & 95, 124 to 126 Montello Sts.

    Well-kept brick and brownstone commercial blocks along Centre and Montello Streets, listed to preserve Brockton's past as the Shoe City. The Lily, Brackett and Co. shoe factory at 124 to 126 Montello Street is believed to be the city's oldest brick shoe factory.38

  • North Downtown Historic District

    Listed 2024 · Roughly bounded by Main and North Main Streets between Linden Street to the north, Legion Parkway to the south, extending west to Warren Avenue between Spring Street to the north and Legion Parkway to the south

    The northern blocks of downtown along Main and North Main Streets, from Linden Street south to Legion Parkway and west to Warren Avenue, nominated with the Historic Resources of Downtown Brockton and listed in 2024.39

  • Blanchard Plat Historic District

    Listed 2025 · 4-17 Carleton St, 10-79 Ellsworth St, 70 Highland St, 4-18 Montgomery St, 101-138 Newbury St, 3-18 North Arlington St, 195-249 West Elm St

    A residential district on parts of Carleton, Ellsworth, Highland, Montgomery, Newbury, North Arlington and West Elm Streets, added to the National Register on February 13, 2025.40

  • School Street-Main Street Historic District

    Listed 2025 · Roughly bounded by Main Street to the west, School Street to the north and east. and East Elm Street to the south

    The blocks around City Hall, between Main, School and East Elm Streets, listed in August 2025 among the downtown places that date to the height of Brockton's shoe industry, 1840 to 1946.41

In their words

“Its shoes and the most wonderful fair in America.”

History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, 1928, on what Brockton is famous for42

“The greatest shoe city in the world.”

Congressman Louis A. Frothingham, in Brockton and its centennial, 192143

“They did not make Brockton but Brockton made them what they are.”

History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, 1928, on the shoes and the fair44

Nearby towns

Sources

  1. Brockton, Massachusetts, Wikipedia
  2. Bird's eye view of Brockton, Massachusetts in 1882, restored by KNOWOL
  3. National Register of Historic Places listings in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Wikipedia
  4. Map of Brockton, Massachusetts in 2026, KNOWOL (USGS elevation, Census Bureau roads)
  5. Brockton and its centennial, chief events as town and city 1821-1921 (1922), on Edison's visit, Internet Archive
  6. Brockton and its centennial, chief events as town and city 1821-1921 (1921), on the Edison lighting system, Internet Archive
  7. History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts (1928), on Brockton's firsts, Internet Archive
  8. Brockton Edison Electric Illuminating Company Power Station, Wikipedia
  9. History of Plymouth County, Massachusetts (1884), on changing the town's name, Internet Archive
  10. History of Plymouth County, Massachusetts (1884), on the act of 1874, Internet Archive
  11. Brockton and its centennial, chief events as town and city 1821-1921 (1922), on shoe workers' homes, Internet Archive
  12. History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts (1928), on the Brockton Fair's newspaper, Internet Archive
  13. Brockton and its centennial, chief events as town and city 1821-1921 (1921), on Christine Nilsson's visit, Internet Archive
  14. History of Plymouth County, Massachusetts (1884), on the fire department, Internet Archive
  15. History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts (1928), on the 1870s in Brockton, Internet Archive
  16. Lyman Block, Wikipedia
  17. Biographical review … of leading citizens of Plymouth County, Massachusetts (1897), on the father of Montello, Internet Archive
  18. Central Fire Station, Wikipedia
  19. Brockton City Hall, Wikipedia
  20. History of Brockton, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, 1656-1894 (1895), on parks, hills and corners, Internet Archive
  21. Snow Fountain and Clock, Wikipedia
  22. History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts (1928), on Daniel W. Field, Internet Archive
  23. D.W. Field Park, Wikipedia
  24. Brockton VA Hospital Historic District, Wikipedia
  25. South Street Historic District, Wikipedia
  26. Curtis Building, Wikipedia
  27. Forest Avenue School, Wikipedia
  28. Howard Block, Wikipedia
  29. Dr. Edgar Everett Dean House, Wikipedia
  30. Gardner J. Kingman House, Wikipedia
  31. Franklin Block, Wikipedia
  32. Goldthwaite Block, Wikipedia
  33. Moses Packard House, Wikipedia
  34. Old Post Office Building, Wikipedia
  35. New England Telephone and Telegraph Engineering Office, Wikipedia
  36. Howard Home for Aged Men, Wikipedia
  37. Rocky Marciano house is a shrine to boxing champ, The Enterprise (Brockton), via AOL
  38. Centre and Montello Streets Historic District, Wikipedia
  39. Pending list, July 2024 (North Downtown Historic District, Historic Resources of Downtown Brockton), National Park Service
  40. Weekly list of actions taken on properties, February 2025 (Blanchard Plat Historic District listed 2/13/2025), National Park Service
  41. Weekly list of actions taken on properties, August 18 to 21, 2025 (School Street-Main Street Historic District and Rocky Marciano House listed), National Park Service
  42. History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts (1928), on the Brockton Agricultural Society, Internet Archive
  43. Brockton and its centennial, chief events as town and city 1821-1921 (1921), centennial greetings, Internet Archive
  44. History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts (1928), on the county's only city, Internet Archive