Beacon Hill, Boston

Beacon Hill Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark District
Cutting down Beacon Hill in 1811; a view from the north toward the Massachusetts State House[1]
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Built/Founded: 1795
Architect: Charles Bulfinch
Architectural style(s): Colonial Revival, Greek Revival, Federal
Governing body: Local
Added to NRHP: October 15, 1966[2]
Designated NHLD: December 19, 1962
NRHP Reference#: 66000130
View of Beacon Hill, Boston, late 18th c., from Breed's Hill in Charlestown.

Beacon Hill is a historic neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, that along with the neighboring Back Bay is home to about 26,000 people.[3] 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 Boston.[4]

The Beacon Hill area is located just north of Boston Common and the Boston Public Garden and is bounded generally 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."

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.

Contents

History

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 hills nearby were substantially reduced in height to allow the development of housing in the area and to use the earth to create land by filling the Mill Pond, to the northeast.

Former Beacon Hill Reservoir in 1854 (demolished ca.1880).

The entire hill was once owned by William Blaxton (also spelled Blackstone), the first European settler of Boston, from 1625 to 1635; he 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. Many famous black leaders, including Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, David Walker and Sojourner Truth, spoke at the African Meeting House on Joy Street. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, who lived for a time on Joy Street, was the first African American woman to become a physician in the United States. In 1860 she was admitted to the New England Female Medical College (which later merged with Boston University) to earn her M.D. degree. Her publication of "A Book of Medical Discourses" in 1883 was one of the first by an African American about medicine. 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.

In 1937 The Late George Apley, a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, gave a satirical description of the upper-class white residents on Beacon Hill.

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.

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

Second Harrison Gray Otis House, 85 Mount Vernon Street.

Notable residents

Houses on Louisburg Square.

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

Sites of interest

Acorn Street, built in the late 1820s.
Monument in back of the State House marking the site of the original beacon pole
Map of Beacon Hill from 1842

Sites of interest in Beacon Hill include:

Former street names in Beacon Hill

The neighborhood of Beacon Hill as seen from the Charles River, (with the Financial District in the background.)

Notable addresses in Beacon Hill

The Chester Harding House, a National Historic Landmark occupied by portrait painter Chester Harding from 1826–1830, now houses the Boston Bar Association.

Beacon Street

Bowdoin Street

Brimmer Street

Cambridge Street

Charles Street

Chestnut Street

Grove Street

Irving Street

Joy Street

Louisburg Square

Mount Vernon Street

Myrtle Street

Phillips Street

Pinckney Street

Other residents

See also

References

  1. ↑ Whitehill, Walter Muir (1968). Boston: A Topographical History (Second ed.). pp. 81–84. 
  2. ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23. http://www.nr.nps.gov/. 
  3. ↑ Boston Indicators Project: BackBay/Beacon Hill
  4. ↑ Great Neighborhoods: Boston
  5. ↑ Boston Street Laying-Out Dept. A record of the streets, alleys, places, etc. in the city of Boston. 1910.

Further reading

External links

U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Keeper of the Register · History of the National Register of Historic Places · Property types · Historic district · Contributing property
List of entries · National Park Service · National Historic Landmarks · National Battlefields · National Historic Sites · National Historical Parks · National Memorials · National Monuments
Neighborhoods in Boston

Allston/Brighton · Back Bay · Bay Village · Beacon Hill · Charlestown · Chestnut Hill · Chinatown · Columbia Point · Dorchester · Downtown Crossing · East Boston · Fenway–Kenmore · Financial District · Forest Hills · Fort Point · Government Center · Hyde Park · Jamaica Plain · Leather District · Longwood · Mattapan · Mission Hill · North End · Readville · Roslindale · Roxbury · South Bay · South Boston · South End · West End · West Roxbury

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