Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cutting down Beacon Hill, about 1800; a view from the north toward the Massachusetts State House.
Cutting down Beacon Hill, about 1800; a view from the north toward the Massachusetts State House.
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 wealthy neighborhood of Federal-style rowhouses, with some of the highest property values in the United States. It is known for its narrow streets, brick sidewalks, and gas-lit streets.

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 originally 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.

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

Contents

[edit] Notable residents

Houses on Louisburg Square.
Houses on Louisburg Square.

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

[edit] Sites of interest

Acorn Street, built in the late 1820s.
Acorn Street, built in the late 1820s.

Sites of interest in Beacon Hill include:

[edit] Notable addresses in Beacon Hill

[edit] Beacon Street

[edit] Bowdoin Street

  • 35 Bowdoin Street - Church of Saint John the Evangelist
  • 122 Bowdoin Street - nominal resident, John Fitzgerald Kennedy (registered voting address)

[edit] Brimmer Street

[edit] Cambridge Street

[edit] Charles Street

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

[edit] Chestnut Street

[edit] 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.

[edit] Irving Street

[edit] Joy Street

[edit] Louisburg Square

[edit] Mount Vernon Street

[edit] Phillips Street

[edit] Pinckney Street

[edit] Other residents

[edit] Beacon Hill, the television series

In 1975, a short-lived dramatic television series was called Beacon Hill and was shown on CBS. The show focused on the fictitious Lassiter family and their Irish servants who lived on Louisburg Square. It was considered to be an Americanized version of the popular series, Upstairs, Downstairs, which the premise was almost the same. The wealthy family lived upstairs, and the servants rules belowstairs.

The show starred Stephen Elliott; Linda Purl; Beatrice Straight; Maeve McGuire; Michael Nouri; and Nancy Marchand among others. The premiere episode was a success, but the ratings dropped drastically as it went along, and was soon after cancelled.

[edit] See also


Neighborhoods in Boston, Massachusetts

Allston/Brighton · Back Bay · Beacon Hill · Charlestown · Chinatown · Dorchester · Downtown Crossing · East Boston · Fenway-Kenmore · Government Center · Hyde Park · Jamaica Plain · Longwood · Mattapan · Mission Hill · North End · Roslindale · Roxbury · South Boston · South End · West End · West Roxbury

[edit] Books

[edit] External links

History

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