Page 89 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Boston

CHINA T OWN AND THE THEA TER DISTRIC T  87

Place, which they renamed
Ping On Alley – “the Street
of Peace and Security.” In
the 1880s another wave of
Chinese immigration from
California was prompted
by an economic boom
that led to job openings
in construction, on the
railroad, and the laying of
telephone lines. Boston’s
Chinese colony was fully
established by the turn
of the 19th century,
and with it came the
ubiquitous garment
and textile industries.
Political turmoil in China Typical store and restaurant façades in Boston’s Chinatown
immediately following
World War II, and more recent 0 Bay Village story writer Edgar Allen Poe
arrivals from Vietnam, Laos, Bounded by Tremont, Arlington & was born in a boarding house
Korea, Thailand, and Cambodia, South Charles Sts. Map 4 D2.  New on Carver Street, where his
have swelled Chinatown’s England Medical Center, Boylston. thespian parents were staying
population, which now stands while in Boston on tour with a
at around 8,000. Restaurants, Originally an expanse of mud traveling theatrical company.
bakeries, food markets, curio flats, the Bay Village area was Although Poe was never fond
shops, and dispensers of drained in the early 1800s and of Boston (he called residents
Chinese medicine are espe cially initially became habitable “Frogpondians”), the city
numerous along the main with the construction of a dam honored him with a statue.
thoroughfare of Beach Street, in 1825. Many carpenters, Erected in October 2014 on the
as well as on Tyler, Oxford, cabinetmakers, artisans, and corner of Boylston Street and
and Harrison Streets. house painters involved in the Charles Street South, it depicts
construction of Beacon Hill’s Poe in mid-stride with a flowing
pricier town houses built their cape and a suitcase filled with
9 Jacob Wirth own modest but well-crafted manuscripts. His signature raven
residences here. As is at his side.
31–37 Stuart St. Map 4 E2.Tel (617)
338-8586.  Boylston, Chinatown. a result there are In the 1920s,
Open 11:30am–9pm Sun & Mon, many similarities at the height of
11:30am–10pm Tue & Wed, 11:30am – be tween the two the Prohibition
midnight Thu, 11:30am–1am Fri & Sat. neighborhoods, era, clan destine
7 ∑ jacobwirth.com including plenty of speakeasies
red brick, arched gave Bay Village
Occupying a 19th-century row doorways, window its still-prevalent
house, Jacob Wirth (see p146) boxes and shutters, bohemian
has been in business since 1868. courtyards, tidy ambience. More
It is Boston’s second oldest gardens, and recently, the
restaurant after the Union Oyster antique gas lamps. neighborhood
House (see p143). Restaurateur Fayette Street was has become
Jacob Wirth had the majestic laid out in 1824 to a center for
mahogany res taurant bar coincide with the Boston’s gay
shipped in small pieces from triumphant U.S. community.
Russia. The beer-hall, with its visit of the Marquis The Coconut
globe lighting, ceiling fans, dark de Lafayette, the Grove nightclub
paneling, bare wood floors, French general fire of 1942, when
and brass railings, has barely who allied him self Bay Village doorway, similar to 491 of the club’s
changed since it first opened. with George those of Beacon Hill patrons died,
Sausage-and-sauerkraut menu Washington for remains one of
staples, combined with draft some of the campaigns of the United States’ highest fire
beers and German wines, make the Revolutionary War. death tolls. This devastating
this the only authentic German Bay Street, located just off occurrence resulted in infamy
restaurant in a city that is Fayette Street, features a single for the area but, ultimately,
famous for its Irish and Italian dwelling and is gen erally to more stringent fire-safety
heritage. Friday night piano regarded as the city’s shortest codes throughout the
sing-alongs are very popular. street. In 1809, poet and short- United States.

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