MALDEN

malden, a city, including several villages, of middlesex county, massachusetts, u.s.a., on the malden river, about 5 m. n. of boston. pop. (1890), 23,031, (1900), 33,664, of whom 9513 were foreign-born, 3673 being english canadians, 870 english, and 617 swedes; (1910 census) 44,404. malden had in 1906 a land area of 4.78 sq. m. it is served by the boston & maine railroad, and by inter-urban electric railways. although it is largely a residential suburb of boston--its post office is a boston sub-station--it has important manufacturing industries. the most valuable manufactured product is rubber boots and shoes. the capital invested in manufacturing in 1905 was $5,553,432; and the value of the factory product, $11,235,635, was 70.2% greater than the value of the factory product in 1900. among malden's institutions are the public library (endowed by elisha s. converse), the malden hospital, the malden day nursery, a young men's christian association, and a home for the aged. a fine system of parks is maintained; the best known is possibly pine banks. to the north and west is the middlesex fells, a state reservation; about 60 acres of this and about 20 acres of the middlesex fells parkway lie within malden. malden, when first settled about 1640, was part of charlestown, and was known for some years as mystic side. it was incorporated as a town under the name of "mauldon" in 1640, and was chartered as a city in 1881. the north part of malden was set off in 1850 to form melrose, and the south part in 1870 to form the town of everett. malden was the birthplace of adoniram judson, the "apostle to burma." michael wigglesworth was pastor here from 1656 until 1705. see d. p. corey, _history of malden_ (malden, 1899); and _malden, past and present_ (malden, 1899).