Charlestown is the oldest neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located on a peninsula north of the Charles River. It was laid out in 1629 by an English settler and was named in honor of King Charles I of England; it was originally a separate town and the first capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Charlestown became a city in 1848 and was annexed by Boston in 1874. With that, it also switched from Middlesex County to Suffolk County. Following the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s, it grew to have a substantial population of Irish immigrants and their descendants, and it was an Irish blue-collar neighborhood for several decades. However, since the late 1980s its proximity to downtown Boston and its colonial architecture led to gentrification; Charlestown still managed to maintain its "Townie" identity and its large Irish population. By the 21st century, Charlestown was a largely residential neighborhood, with much housing near the waterfront, overlooking Boston's skyline. In 2011, Charlestown had a population of 16,685, with 75.4% being white, 7.5% Asian, 7.4% African-American, 7.4% Hispanic, and 2.2% multiracial.