A Walking Tour of Boston - Back Bay (south of Commonwealth), Massachusetts
In 1857 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts began to fill in the tidal flats west of the city center.
The fill began at the Public Garden and spread westward, eventually taking 25 years to complete the
project. From the beginning, Back Bay was designed to be a residential community; over the next 60
years more than 1,500 houses and apartments were built here.
Back Bay represented one of the country’s first concerted efforts to create a homogeneous urban
environment on a grand scale. The wide streets and large building lots attracted wealthy Bostonians
from Beacon Hill from the beginning. America’s top architects from the Gilded Age are represented
throughout the neighborhod. World War I and the Depression led to the dissolution of many of these
magnificent single-family mansions and the infiltration of retail establishments.
This walking tour of the Back Bay will begin in Copley Square, home to several of America’s most
significant buildings...
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