[Note: This is part of a new ongoing series about lost, altered or “never were” states]
In July of 1919, Massachusetts state representative James H. Brennan went to the clerk’s office and filed a bill to make Boston a state.
Ironically, the main issue for Brennan was unjust taxation. He was upset that Boston was required to pay $600,000 into the state treasury for funding schools — money that would not directly benefit the students of Boston. (That’s about $9.2 million today).
Brennan said, “The people of Boston must fight for the right of self-determination. The Republican legislature loaded us down with unjust taxation.”
The bill obviously went nowhere, but it wasn’t that crazy of idea considering the area’s past. Both Maine and Rhode Island split from Massachusetts.
*As a Red Sox fan, I feel compelled to add that Fenway Park had been operating for seven years when this took place.
Source: Trinklein, Michael J. Lost States. Quirk Books, 2010.