Boston's Back Bay Neighborhood

Back Bay is an officially recognized neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is an upscale residential, retail, and commercial office district. Back Bay and neighboring Beacon Hill are considered Boston's most expensive neighborhoods, with townhouses regularly selling for millions of dollars.

Popular upmarket shopping destinations include Newbury and Boylston Streets as well as the Prudential Center and Copley Place malls.

Architecturally the neighborhood is dominated by Victorian brownstone buildings in its northern, more residential portion; the southern part of the neighborhood is far more commercial and is home to some of Boston's tallest skyscrapers.

Definition of Back Bay

The boundaries of the Back Bay, as defined by the Neighborhood Association of Back Bay, are "the Charles River on the North; Arlington Street to Park Square on the East; Columbus Avenue to the 'New York, New Haven, & Hartford' right-of-way (south of Stuart Street and Copley Place), Huntington Avenue, Dalton Street, and the Massachusetts Turnpike on the South; and Charlesgate East on the West." The block between Charlesgate and Kenmore Square is often included as it retains Commonwealth Avenue's central park and pedestrial mall.

The Back Bay Architectural District, which is much smaller, was established by state law in 1966, and is bounded by "the centerlines of Back Street on the north, Embankment Road and Arlington Street on the east, Boylston Street on the south, and Charlesgate East on the west."

History

The neighborhood gained its name because the area was, in fact, before it was filled in, literally the "Back Bay" for Boston.

To the west of the Shawmut Peninsula, on the far side from Boston Harbor, a wide bay opened between Boston and Cambridge, with the Charles River entering at the west side. As with all of the New England coast, the bay was tidal, with water rising and falling several feet over the course of the day. At low water, part of the bottom of the bay was exposed.

In 1814, the Boston and Roxbury Mill Corporation was chartered to construct a mill dam, which would also serve as a toll road connecting Boston to Watertown, bypassing Boston Neck. The dam was later buried under present-day Beacon Street.

The Back Bay neighborhood was created when a parcel of land was created by filling the tidewater flats of the Charles River. This massive project was begun in 1857. The filling of present-day Back Bay was completed by 1882; filling reached Kenmore Square in 1890, and finished in the Fens in 1900. The project was the largest of a number of land reclamation projects, beginning in 1820, which, over the course of time, more than doubled the size of the original Boston peninsula. It is frequently observed that this would have been impossible under modern environmental regulations.

Back Bay's development was planned by architect Arthur Gilman with Gridley James Fox Bryant. Strict regulations produced a uniform and well-integrated architecture, consisting mostly of dignified three- and four-story residential (or once-residential) brownstones.

Greatly influenced by Haussmann's renovation of Paris in the mid-to-late 19th century, the main thoroughfares of Back Bay emphasize order, with wide, parallel, tree-lined avenues and more homogenous architectural styles. Five east and west corridors run the length of the Back Bay: Beacon Street (closest to the Charles River), Marlborough Street, Commonwealth Avenue, Newbury Street, and Boylston Street. With the exception of Commonwealth Avenue, the wide central thoroughfare, these streets are one-way and intersect with north-south cross streets at regular intervals. The north-south cross streets, also one-way, are named alphabetically starting at the Public Garden, and a 1903 guidebook notes an alternation of trisyllabic and bisyllabic names: Arlington, Berkeley, Clarendon, Dartmouth, Exeter, Fairfield, Gloucester, and Hereford. (This same set of street names is used for the long East-West main streets in the center of Gladstone, Oregon, but the origin of this connection is unknown).

Back Bay Today

Culturally speaking, the Back Bay is known for being the home of the wealthy and the upper middle class. It is best-known for its expensive housing and shopping areas. Most stores are located on Newbury and Boylston Streets, with the ends closer to the Boston Public Garden traditionally more expensive. The Back Bay is dense with luxury hotels that include the Colonnade Hotel, Westin Copley Place, Fairmont Copley Plaza, and the largest hotel in the city, the Marriott Copley. The new Mandarin Oriental, Boston is due to open in June 2008, with an arcade area housing a number of upscale designer boutiques and restaurants.

The Copley Square area is close to the Back Bay railroad terminal, and is the eastern nexus of a system of hotels and shopping centers connected by a set of glassed-in pedestrian overpasses.

The large Copley Place mall includes the first Neiman Marcus opened in the New England area. The system of overpasses extends over half a mile to the Prudential Center and the shops surrounding it. The 52-story Prudential Tower, thought a marvel in 1964, is now considered ugly by some. However, the Prudential Skywalk observatory offers wonderful views of Back Bay, Boston, and surrounding areas.

Source: Wikipedia

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