Among New England's many historical points of interest, one of its most poignant is the Irish Famine Memorial located in a small park on the corner of Washington and School Streets in downtown Boston. Cast bronze sculptures depict two Irish families: one emaciated and clothed in rags, starving to death from the famine caused by potato blight that began in 1845, and another family healthy, well-dressed, and prosperous, representing the estimated 100,000 Irish who escaped the famine by sailing to the port of Boston.