City of Champions
Brockton is home to 93,804 people. A diverse community with residents from more than 29 nations, Brockton is the seventh largest city in Massachusetts and recently celebrated its 130th anniversary as a city.
Brockton was originally known as North Bridgewater, an area that is today made up of Brockton, West Bridgewater, East Bridgewater, and Bridgewater. The city was first settled in the 17th century. Farming was Brockton’s first industry, but eventually, the city transformed and became a focal point manufacturing, particularly shoes and textiles. Brockton was dubbed the “Shoe City” because of its high concentration of shoe production factories and retailers.
Now known as the “City of Champions,” Brockton is the hometown as the hometown of boxing greats Rocky Marciano and Marvin Hagler. Located in Plymouth County, the city has a Mayor-Council (Plan B) form of government.
The City of Brockton is a destination for business with the recent addition of the Bernardi Autor Group, Panera Bread, and NorthEast Electrical Distributors. New England Development, the previous owners of the Westgate Mall, repurchased the mall in late 2010 and has begun a $13 million expansion which will include the construction f a state-of-the-art Market Basket grocery store.
Renewable energy has also been a focus for the city in the last few years. The Brockton Brightfields, located at the corner of East Union and Grove streets, was the largest solar array in New England and the largest brightfield in the United States at the time of its opening in 2006.
Brockton, benefitting from a close proximity to Boston and Providence, has all the amenities of an urban center – from shopping and dining to cultural, recreational and educational opportunities.
The city boasts three golf courses – including one city-run, as well as several dozen parks and fields. The Fuller Craft Museum, New England’s home of contemporary craft is also located on Oak Street. The Brockton Symphony Orchestra, now entering its 64th season provides high quality and affordable entertainment to music lovers throughout the region. It is also home to the Brockton Rox, a Can-AM independent baseball team playing at Campanelli Stadium. The team celebrated their 10th Anniversary in 2011. Massasoit Community College has also called the City of Champions home for more than four decades.
The city has also received a number of accolades for its high quality education system and youth programs. Brockton High School is one of the largest secondary schools in the nation with more than 4,000 students and has been named one of America’s Best High School’s by U.S. News & World Report twice and was featured on the front page of the New York Times in 2010 for efforts which led to the school outperforming 90 percent of Massachusetts high schools on standardized tests. Brockton was named one of the Best Communities for Young People three times – in 2010, 2008, and 2005.
