Page 48 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Boston

46  BOST ON AREA B Y AREA

bow-fronted town houses sell
for a premium over comparable
homes else where on Beacon
Hill. Even the on-street parking
spaces are deeded. The tra-
ditions of Christmas Eve carol
singing and candlelit windows
are said to have begun on
Louisburg Square. A statue
of Christopher Columbus,
presented by a wealthy Greek
merchant in 1850, stands
at its center.
3 Mount Vernon
Street
Map 1 B4.  Charles/MGH,
Park Street.
In the 1890s the novelist Henry
James (see p33) called Mount
Vernon Street “the most
civilized street in America,” and
it still retains that air of urbane
culture. Most of the developers
of Beacon Hill, who called
themselves the Mount Vernon
Proprietors, chose to build
Charles Street, lined with shops catering to the residents of Beacon Hill their private homes along
this street. Architect Charles
1 Charles Street situated at the top of Charles Bulfinch (see p55) envisioned
Street, between Revere and Beacon Hill as a district of large
Map 1 B4.  Charles/MGH.
Cambridge Streets. Charles freestanding mansions on
This street originally ran along Street was one of the birth- spacious landscaped grounds,
the bank of the Charles River, places of the antique trade in but building costs ultimately
although subsequent landfill the U.S. and now has more dictated much denser devel-
has removed it from the than a dozen antique dealers. opment. The sole remaining
riverbank by several hundred example of Bulfinch’s vision
feet. The main shopping and is the second Harrison Gray
dining area of the Beacon Hill 2 Louisburg Square Otis House, built in 1800 at
neighborhood, the curving Map 1 B4.  Charles/MGH, No. 85. The Greek Revival row
line of Charles Street hugs the Park Street. houses next door (Nos. 59–83),
base of Beacon Hill, giving it a graciously set back from the
quaint, village-like air. Many Home to millionaire politicians, street by 30 ft (9 m), were
of the houses remain resi- best-selling authors, and built to replace the single
dential on the upper stories, corporate moguls, Louisburg mansion belonging to Otis’s
while street level and cellar Square is arguably chief devel opment
levels were converted to Boston’s most partner, Jonathan
commercial uses long ago. prestigious address. Mason. The original
Though most of Charles Street Developed in the mansion was torn
dates from the 19th century, 1830s as a shared down after Mason’s
widening in the 1920s meant private preserve on death in 1836. The
that some of the houses on Beacon Hill, the three Bulfinch-
the west side acquired new square’s tiny patch of designed houses
façades. The Charles Street greenery sur rounded at Nos. 55, 57, and
Meeting House, designed by by a high iron fence 59 Mount Vernon
Asher Benjamin (see p34) in sends a clear signal Street were built
1807, was built for a Baptist of the square’s by Mason for his
congregation that practiced continued exclu- daughters. No. 55
immersion in the then adjacent sivity. On the last was ultimately
river. It is now a commercial private square in passed on to the
building. Two groups of strik ing the city, the narrow Columbus Statue, Nichols family (see
Greek Revival row houses are Greek Revival Louisburg Square p47) in 1885.

046-047_EW_Boston.indd 46 09/01/17 12:14 pm
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Catalogue template “UK” LAYER
(Source v2.7)
Date 1st October 2013
Size 125mm x 217mm