Shawmut Peninsula is the promontory of land on which Boston , Massachusetts was built. The peninsula , originally a mere 789 acres (3.19 km ) in area, more than doubled in size due to land reclamation efforts that were a feature of the history of Boston throughout the 19th century.
24-510: The Crowninshield House is a historic house at 164 Marlborough Street in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts . Built in 1870, it is the first residential design of the renowned architect Henry Hobson Richardson . It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The Crowninshield House stands at the southwest corner of Marlborough and Dartmouth Street. It
48-621: A 19th-century filling project, the Back Bay was a bay, west of the Shawmut Peninsula (on the far side from Boston Harbor ) between Boston and Cambridge , the Charles River entering from the west. This bay was tidal: the water rose and fell several feet over the course of each day, and at low tide much of the bay's bed was exposed as a marshy flat. As early as 5,200 years before present, Native Americans built fish weirs here, evidence of which
72-441: Is a four-story brick building, featuring a variety of trim in black brick, brownstone, and decorative green and blue tiles. It has a mansard roof , and a projecting two-story entrance section at the center of the main facade. The entry is flanked by sidelight windows and sheltered by a semicircular wrought iron hood. Commissioned by Benjamin W. Crowninshield , the house was designed in 1868 and built in 1870 by H.H. Richardson. It
96-610: Is listed on the National Register of Historic Places , and is considered one of the best-preserved examples of 19th-century urban architecture in the United States. In 1966, the Massachusetts Legislature, "to safeguard the heritage of the city of Boston by preventing the despoliation" of the Back Bay, created the Back Bay Architectural District to regulate exterior changes to Back Bay buildings. Since
120-1030: Is the earliest surviving example of Richardson's private residence work. Unlike many of his later works in the signature Romanesque style that he would develop, this house owes more to the Second Empire style . The house is, along with the former Trinity Rectory , one of two surviving Richardson houses in Boston. Benjamin William Crowninshield (1837–1892) was a member of the Boston Brahmin Crowninshield family . He attended Harvard College , graduating in 1858, along with classmates H.H. Richardson and Henry Adams . Adams' Education of Henry Adams (1918) includes descriptions of his friendship with Crowninshield. Crowninshield studied history, publishing and speaking on various topics, such as yachting and military history. Published works include A History of
144-551: The Boston Public Garden ), Berkeley, Clarendon, Dartmouth, Exeter, Fairfield, Gloucester and Hereford Streets. All of the west–east streets, except Commonwealth Avenue, are one-way streets. In the 1960s, the " High Spine " design plan, in conjunction with development plans, gave way to the construction of high-rise buildings along the Massachusetts Turnpike , which in turn allowed the development of major projects in
168-639: The Boston Public Library , and Boston Architectural College . Initially conceived as a residential-only area, commercial buildings were permitted from around 1890, and Back Bay now features many office buildings, including the John Hancock Tower , Boston's tallest skyscraper. It is also considered a fashionable shopping destination (especially Newbury and Boylston Streets , and the adjacent Prudential Center and Copley Place malls) and home to several major hotels. The Neighborhood Association of
192-508: The Charles River basin. Construction began in 1859, as the demand for luxury housing exceeded the availability in the city at the time, and the area was fully built by around 1900. It is most famous for its rows of Victorian brownstone homes—considered one of the best preserved examples of 19th-century urban design in the United States—as well as numerous architecturally significant individual buildings, and cultural institutions such as
216-608: The Fens in 1900. Much of the old mill dam remains buried under present-day Beacon Street. The project was the largest of a number of land reclamation projects which, beginning in 1820, more than doubled the size of the original Shawmut Peninsula. Completion of the Charles River Dam in 1910 converted the former Charles estuary into a freshwater basin; the Charles River Esplanade was constructed to allow residents to enjoy
240-595: The Massachusetts landscape, the peninsula was shaped by glacial erosion and moraine deposits left by retreating glaciers at the end of the last ice age . When Europeans arrived, Shawmut was thickly forested. The pre-settlement topography of the peninsula was marked by three hills: Copps Hill, in what is now the North End ; Fort Hill, in today's Financial District ; and the Trimountain, today's Beacon Hill district. Of
264-439: The 1960s, the concept of a High Spine has influenced large-project development in Boston, reinforced by zoning rules permitting high-rise construction along the axis of the Massachusetts Turnpike , including air rights siting of buildings. Copley Square features Trinity Church , the Boston Public Library , the John Hancock Tower , and numerous other notable buildings. Prominent cultural and educational institutions in
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#1733086268280288-666: The Back Bay considers the neighborhood's bounds to be " Charles River on the North; Arlington Street to Park Square on the East; Columbus Avenue to the New York New Haven and Hartford right-of-way (South of Stuart Street and Copley Place ), Huntington Avenue , Dalton Street, and the Massachusetts Turnpike on the South; Charlesgate East on the West." Before its transformation into buildable land by
312-741: The Back Bay include: Back Bay is served by the Green Line's Arlington , Copley , Hynes Convention Center , and Prudential stations, and the Orange Line's Back Bay station (which is also an MBTA Commuter Rail and Amtrak station). According to the 2012–2016 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, the largest ancestry groups in ZIP Codes 02115 and 02116 are: 42°21′4.66″N 71°4′49.28″W / 42.3512944°N 71.0803556°W / 42.3512944; -71.0803556 ( Back Bay, Boston ) Shawmut Peninsula Like much of
336-450: The Boston neighborhoods of the South End , Back Bay , and Fenway-Kenmore . The Back Bay Fens , a freshwater urban wild in the latter area, is a remnant of the salt marshes that once surrounded Shawmut Peninsula. Although this project eliminated the wetland ecosystem that existed there at the time and would be impossible under modern environmental regulations , it was considered
360-462: The First Regiment of Massachusetts Cavalry Volunteers (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1891). In 1868, Crowninshield commissioned his friend Richardson to design and build the house on Marlborough Street in the newly land-filled Back Bay area of Boston. Back Bay, Boston Back Bay is an officially recognized neighborhood of Boston , Massachusetts , built on reclaimed land in
384-601: The adjacent Fenway neighborhood with Ipswich, Jersey, and Kilmarnock Streets. West of Hereford are Massachusetts Avenue (a regional thoroughfare crossing the Harvard Bridge to Cambridge and far beyond) and Charlesgate , which forms the Back Bay's western boundary. Setback requirements and other restrictions, written into the lot deeds of the newly filled Back Bay, produced harmonious rows of dignified three- to five-story residential brownstones (though most along Newbury Street are now in commercial or mixed use). The Back Bay
408-458: The area. The plan of Back Bay, by Arthur Gilman of the firm Gridley James Fox Bryant , was greatly influenced by Haussmann's renovation of Paris . It featured wide, parallel, tree-lined avenues unlike anything seen in other Boston neighborhoods. Five east–west corridors— Beacon Street (closest to the Charles), Marlborough Street, Commonwealth Avenue (actually two one-way thoroughfares flanking
432-512: The end, the project was an economic failure, and in 1857 a massive project was begun to "make land" by filling the area enclosed by the dam. The firm of Goss and Munson extended railroad lines to quarries in Needham, Massachusetts , 9 miles (14 km) away; a 35-car train carrying gravel and other fill arrived every 45 minutes, day and night. When the Needham gravel pits were exhausted, additional fill
456-508: The peninsula occurs in 1630, by the lone settler William Blackstone , in an invitation to John Winthrop to move the site of Winthrop's colonial settlement to the peninsula from what is now Charlestown . The Charlestown peninsula lacked a source of fresh water, while the Shawmut peninsula had an "excellent spring" on the north side of what is now Beacon Hill . Reclamation projects began in 1820 and continued intermittently until 1900 and created
480-429: The three hills, the Trimountain was by far the largest, a steep-sided mass with three summits. Its name was eventually shortened to Tremont. To the south was a narrow isthmus named Boston Neck that connected the peninsula to the mainland site of Roxbury , now a neighborhood of Boston. The name is derived from Mashauwomuk , an Algonquian word of uncertain meaning. The first recorded use of "Shawmutt" to describe
504-466: The tree-lined pedestrian Commonwealth Avenue Mall), Newbury Street and Boylston Street —are intersected at regular intervals by north–south cross streets: Arlington (along the western edge of the Public Garden ), Berkeley, Clarendon, Dartmouth, Exeter, Fairfield, Gloucester, and Hereford. An 1874 guidebook noted the trisyllabic-disyllabic alternation of that alphabetic sequence; the series continues in
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#1733086268280528-411: The view of the new lagoon. The Esplanade has since undergone several changes, including the construction of Storrow Drive . The Back Bay is traversed by five east–west corridors: Beacon Street , Marlborough Street, Commonwealth Avenue , Newbury Street and Boylston Street . These are interrupted at regular intervals by north–south streets named alphabetically: Arlington (along the western border of
552-470: Was discovered during subway construction in 1913 ( see Ancient Fishweir Project and Boylston Street Fishweir ). In 1814, the Boston and Roxbury Mill Corporation was chartered to construct a milldam , which would also serve as a toll road connecting Boston to Watertown , bypassing Boston Neck . The dam prevented the natural tides from flushing sewage out to sea, creating severe sanitary and odor problems. With costs higher and power lower than expected, in
576-486: Was found in Canton, Dedham, Hyde Park, and Westwood. William Dean Howells recalled "the beginnings of Commonwealth Avenue, and the other streets of the Back Bay, laid out with their basements left hollowed in the made land, which the gravel trains were yet making out of the westward hills." Present-day Back Bay itself was filled by 1882; the project reached existing land at what is now Kenmore Square in 1890, and finished in
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