Boston is one of America’s oldest cities, having been founded in 1630 by Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Company. There has been a long succession of styles in the architecture of New England, beginning with wooden Colonial themes and passing through the Georgian and Federalist structures of brick and stone. These themes in Boston and throughout America have not been completely exclusive of each other, and in New England certain methods have dominated over others at various points of the region’s architectural development. Though not an exhaustive collection of the multitude of architectural styles in America, the options on this page represent five of the most significant developments in American architecture which serve as an aid to understanding the origins of Boston's Neoclassical style.