Beacon Hill, Boston

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Beacon Hill Historic District
Cutting down Beacon Hill, about 1800; a view from the north toward the Massachusetts State House
Beacon Hill, Boston is located in Massachusetts
Beacon Hill, Boston
LocationBoston, Massachusetts
Built1795
ArchitectCharles Bulfinch
Architectural styleColonial Revival, Greek Revival, Federal
NRHP reference No.66000130[1]
Added to NRHPOctober 15, 1966
Other places are also named Beacon Hill.

Beacon Hill is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, covering approximately one square mile (2.6 km²) and home to about 10,000 people. It is a neighborhood of Federal-style rowhouses and is known for its narrow, gas-lit streets and brick sidewalks. Today, Beacon Hill is regarded as one of the most desirable and expensive neighborhoods in the country.[2][3]

Like many similarly named areas, the neighborhood is named for the location of a former beacon atop the highest point in central Boston, once located just behind the current site of the Massachusetts State House. The hill, and two other nearby hills, were substantially reduced in height to allow the development of housing in the area and to create land by filling part of the Back Bay at the foot of the hill.

The Beacon Hill area is located just north of the Boston Common and the Boston Public Garden and is generally bounded by Beacon Street on the south, Somerset Street on the east, Cambridge Street to the north and Storrow Drive along the riverfront of the Charles River Esplanade to the west. The block bounded by Beacon, Tremont and Park Streets is included as well, as is the Boston Common itself. The level section of the neighborhood west of Charles Street, on landfill, is known locally as the "Flat of the Hill."

The entire hill was once owned by William Blaxton, the first settler of Boston from 1625 to 1635, who eventually sold his land to the Puritans. The south slope of Beacon Hill facing the Common was the socially desirable side in the 19th century. Black Beacon Hill was on the north slope. The two Hills were largely united on the subject of Abolition. Beacon Hill was one of the staunchest centers of the anti-slavery movement in the Antebellum era.

Until a major urban renewal project of the late 1950s, the red-light district of Scollay Square flourished just to the east of Beacon Hill, as did the West End neighborhood to the north.

Because the Massachusetts State House is in a prominent location at the top of the hill, the term "Beacon Hill" is also often used as a metonym in the local news media to refer to the state government or the legislature.

Beacon Hill was designated a National Historic Landmark on December 19, 1962.

File:2nd Harrison Gray Otis House.JPG
2nd Harrison Gray Otis House, 85 Mount Vernon Street.

Notable residents

File:Louisburg Square, Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts.JPG
Houses on Louisburg Square.
Map of Beacon Hill from 1842

Beacon Hill has been home to many notable persons, including:

Demographics

The average income for a male in 2007 was $1,895,800, while it was $1,250,325 for women. The average income for a family was $4,798,000.[citation needed] In 2007, the average selling price for a townhouse in the neighborhood was $2,750,000; while the average price for a penthouse apartment went for $3,000,000. The neighborhood's most exclusive and expensive street (Louisburg Square), had an average home value of between $6,000,000 and $20,000,000.[citation needed]

Sites of interest

File:Acorn Street, Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts.JPG
Acorn Street, built in the late 1820s.
Monument in back of the State House marking the site of the original beacon pole

Sites of interest in Beacon Hill include:

Former street names in Beacon Hill

  • Anderson Street - West Centre Street
  • Irving Street - Butolph Street
  • Joy Street - Clapboard Street (between Cambridge and Myrtle Streets in 1735), Belknap Lane (between Myrtle and Mount Vernon Streets)
  • Myrtle Street - May Street
  • Phillips Street - Southac Street
  • Smith Court - May's Court
  • West Cedar Street - George Street

Notable addresses in Beacon Hill

Beacon Street

Bowdoin Street

Brimmer Street

Cambridge Street

Charles Street

  • 44A Charles Street - Mary Sullivan, last victim of the Boston Strangler, murdered here

Chestnut Street

Grove Street

  • 28 Grove Street - Resident Rev. Leonard A. Grimes, prominent black clergyman associated with the Underground Railroad and Abolitionist movement. Noted for being one of the men who bought the freedom of Anthony Burns after his arrest.

Irving Street

Joy Street

Louisburg Square

Mount Vernon Street

Phillips Street

Pinckney Street

Other residents

See also

Books

  • Beacon Hill: The Life & Times of a Neighborhood, Moying Li-Marcus, 2002. ISBN 1-55553-543-7
  • Beacon Hill: A Walking Tour, A. McVoy McIntyre, 1975. ISBN 0-316-55600-9
  • The Mount Vernon Street Warrens, Martin Green, Simon & Schuster, 1989 ISBN 0684191091
  • Joy Street Frances Parkinson Keyes, 1950, fiction.

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23.
  2. ^ Great Neighborhoods: Boston
  3. ^ Boston Neighborhoods

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Beacon Hill, Boston.

History

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