In the roster of famous American neighborhoods, the Back Bay stands with New York's Park Avenue and San Francisco's Nob Hill as a symbol of propriety and high social standing. Before the 1850s it truly was a bay, a tidal flat that formed the south bank of a distended Charles River. The filling in of land along the isthmus that joined Boston to the mainland (the Neck) began in 1850, and resulted in the creation of the South End.
Though the name says it, it’s hard to believe that this broad street grid running from Boston Public Garden up elegant Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue, divided by a center strip of statues and magnolia trees, was, until the 1830s, landfilled dockland. Anchored by the John Hancock Tower and the Prudential, the Back Bay is studded with beautiful churches around Copley Square and lively Newbury Street.
Today, the Back Bay is a mix of the historic and the new, happily coexisting in one of the city's loveliest areas, with everything from landmarks, like Trinity Church, and green spaces, such as the Esplanade, to a multitude of hip bars and fine-dining restaurants. Adjacent to the Back Bay, the South End nonetheless has its own identity, with stunning Victorian row houses, art galleries galore, Boston's largest gay community, and plenty of unique shops and restaurants of every type.
