Malden, Massachusetts
A Short History of Malden
The sneaker on a lot of feet in this country traces back to Malden. From a wooded “Mistick Side” of Charlestown to the birthplace of the Converse All-Star, Malden’s story runs on settlement, industry, and wave after wave of new arrivals who keep remaking the city.
Settlement & Founding (1629-1649)
The hilly, wooded land north of the Mystic River was home to Indigenous people of the region long before any English settlement. Colonists began acquiring it in 1629, and Puritans settled the area, then called “Mistick Side” and part of Charlestown, around 1640. In 1649 it became a separate town named Malden, after Maldon, England, the home of an early settler and landholder named Joseph Hills.
Colonial Town & Revolution
By the American Revolution, Malden had about a thousand residents and a sharp appetite for resistance. Townspeople boycotted tea in 1770, and Malden was among the first communities to formally petition for a break with the British Empire. Bell Rock Cemetery, the town’s oldest burial ground, still holds marked graves dating to the 1600s.
Splitting & Becoming a City (1850-1882)
Malden once stretched well beyond its current lines. Melrose broke off in 1850 and Everett in 1870. As railroads and streetcars turned what remained into a fast-growing suburb of Boston, the town reorganized as a city, formally incorporated on March 31, 1882.
Industrial Malden
The late 1800s and early 1900s turned Malden into a manufacturing hub, especially for shoes and rubber. The Converse Rubber Factory in the Edgeworth neighborhood was the original home of the Converse “All-Star,” one of the best known sneakers ever made. For decades, New England Coffee roasted beans downtown and gave the whole district its smell.
A City of Immigrants
Wave after wave of newcomers built modern Malden: Irish, Italian, and Jewish families in the industrial era, then large Asian, Haitian, Brazilian, and other communities more recently. Together they have made Malden one of the most diverse cities in Massachusetts, and you can see it in the schools, the storefronts, and who shows up to run for office.
Malden Today
Today’s Malden is built around the MBTA Orange Line, with a downtown on the rebound, the new Malden River Works waterfront, and green space at Pine Banks Park, Fellsmere Park, and a slice of the Middlesex Fells Reservation. It also happens to host the main offices of the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the agency that grades every public school in Massachusetts.
Sources: City of Malden, “About Malden”; Encyclopædia Britannica; and standard local histories. Dates of settlement and incorporation follow the City of Malden’s official account.