populous as the Southern portion of the state. Armenians are mostly concentrated in and around the cities of San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland. The 2000 Census reported only 2,528 Armenians in San Francisco, but Hayk The Ubiquitous Armenian stated "the actual number is probably much higher since the census is usually lower than actuals." Northeast Armenians came to the Northeastern United States fleeing ethnically motivated violence starting around 1890. When the Hood Rubber Company (later joined with B.F. Goodrich) opened in Watertown, Massachusetts in 1896. Armenian, Syrian, Greek, and Italian immigrants made Hood Rubber the biggest producer of rubber soles in the US, and thus made Watertown, MA the first center of Armenian America. New York was also a destination for Armenian immigrants in the early 20th century. The area between East 20th Street, Lexington Avenue and First Avenue, where a compact Armenian population lived and Armenian shops existed, was called "Little Armenia" until the 1960s. The area was mentioned in 1914 book Our Mr. Wren: The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man by Sinclair Lewis (the 1930 Nobel Prize Winner). Today, according to estimates there are 150,000 Armenians in the Tri-State area. Queens is home to some 50,000 Armenian Americans, Manhattan has 10,000 Armenian population centered in Gramercy Park, Kips Bay and Murray Hill, where St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral is. Stepan Zadori, a Hungarian Armenian, is the first known Armenian to come to Boston, The Armenian community in Boston was not founded until the 1880s. Today, estimates say that Armenians number from 50,000 to 70,000 in the Greater Boston area. The Armenian Heritage Park, dedicated to the victims of the Armenian genocide, was opened in downtown Boston on May 22, 2012. Watertown, Massachusetts is the center of Boston Armenians, where according to estimates about 8,000 people of Armenian origin reside, though the 2000 Census put the number only at 2,708. Worcester, Massachusetts was also a major center for Armenian immigrants in the early part of the twentieth century. The Armenian Library and Museum of America is located in Watertown. The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) is located in Belmont, and "starting in early 2018, NAASR will undertake top-to-bottom renovations...to transform it into a welcoming hub and first-class Armenian Studies research center for scholars and myriad others, Armenians and non-Armenians alike." Other towns in the area with significant Armenian populations are Worcester (1,306), Belmont (1,165), Waltham