Boston Guide
Back Bay
Meticulously planned Back Bay is Boston at its most cosmopolitan. The neighborhood's elegant, angular, tree-lined streets form a pedestrian-friendly area that looks much as it did in the nineteenth century, right down to the original gaslights and brick sidewalks. A youthful population helps offset stodginess and keeps the district, which begins at the Public Garden, buzzing with chic eateries, trendy shops, and an aura of breezy affluence. Its main draw is a trove of exquisite Gilded Age rowhouses; walking around, it seems as if there's no end to the fanciful bay windows and ornamental turrets.
Running parallel to the Charles River in neat rows, Back Bay's east– west thoroughfares – Beacon, Marlborough, Newbury, and Boylston streets, with Commonwealth Avenue in between – are transsected by eight shorter streets. These latter roads have been so fastidiously laid out that not only are their names in alphabetical order, but trisyllables are deliberately intercut by disyllables: Arlington, Berkeley, Clarendon, Dartmouth, Exeter, Fairfield, Gloucester, and Hereford (though Gloucester, purists protest, only looks trisyllabic) – until Massachusetts Avenue breaks the pattern at the western border of the neighborhood. The grandest rowhouses are to be found on Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue, while Marlborough is perhaps more atmospheric. Boylston and Newbury are the main commercial drags and a shopping excursion on the latter is a must-do Boston experience. In the midst of it all is a small greenspace, Copley Square, surrounded by the area's main sights: Trinity Church, the imposing Boston Central Library, and the city's skyline-defining John Hancock Tower.