Brockton

City in Plymouth County, southeast Massachusetts, 32 km/20 mi south of Boston; population (2000) 94,300. Industries include footwear, tools, printing, electronic equipment, and clothing. Brockton was built on land sold by American Indians in 1649 to the English settlers Myles Standish and John Alden, which became part of the Plymouth colony. It was part of Bridgewater until 1821. It is home to Massasoit Community College (1966).

The city has been a leading shoe manufacturing centre since 1750. The shoe and boot industry boomed in response to the Civil War, facilitated by the invention of a machine to stitch uppers and soles. 30,000 people worked in shoemaking in Brockton at its peak in 1929. Brockton was a pioneer in electric street lighting and electric streetcars. Brockton had the third electricity-generating station in the USA, set up under the supervision of Thomas Edison in 1883. In 1884 Edison witnessed the opening of City Theatre, the first to be lighted from a central power station. Brockton was also a pioneer in inland sewage disposal. There are 15 entries on the national register of historic places, including houses, historic districts, post office, the city hall, a power station, a fire station, and a school. Other features are the Brockton Historical Society Museum, which features shoemaking and the work of Thomas Edison, and the Fuller Museum of Art, which has collections of 19th- and 20th-century US art and sculpture.