Back Bay, Boston

Back Bay is an elegant neighborhood in central Boston celebrated for its rows of Victorian brownstone townhouses and its rare, orderly grid, laid out on land reclaimed from a tidal bay in one of the great engineering feats of 19th-century America. It stands as one of the best-preserved examples of Victorian urban planning in the United States.

Its creation was monumental. Beginning in the 1850s, the shallow, foul-smelling Back Bay was filled over several decades with gravel hauled by train from outside the city, transforming marsh into prime real estate. The new district was planned on a spacious French-inspired grid, unusual in a city famous for its tangled colonial streets, with a grand central boulevard, Commonwealth Avenue, running down the middle as a tree-lined park mall.

Architecturally, Back Bay is a showcase of Victorian styles, its uniform brownstone and brick row houses displaying bay windows, mansard roofs, and ornate detail. The neighborhood centers on Copley Square, framed by the Romanesque Trinity Church and the palatial Boston Public Library, with the reflective glass of the John Hancock Tower rising behind them. Newbury Street, the district's spine of shopping, is lined with boutiques in converted townhouses. The alphabetically ordered cross streets, from Arlington through Hereford, make it one of the few parts of Boston where a visitor rarely loses their bearings.

For visitors, Back Bay offers refined browsing, dining, and architecture in a compact, highly walkable setting. The Commonwealth Avenue Mall makes a pleasant green promenade, Copley Square gathers several landmarks in one place, and the district connects to the Charles River Esplanade for waterfront walks. It is flat, unlike hilly Beacon Hill nearby, and well served by subway lines, making it one of the most accessible historic quarters in the city. Spring blossoms along the mall are a particular pleasure.