In his new book Anthony M. Sammarco outlines the Back Bay of Boston, a
neighborhood of the city that is not just the quintessential Victorian
neighborhood of the 19th century, but one that was infilled and planned
as the premier residential and institutional development.
Begun in the late 1850s when the marshlands west of the Boston Public
Garden were infilled through the ingenuity of John Souther, the Back Bay
was to become a massive project that took over three decades to
complete. With fill brought by gondola cars from Needham, Massachusetts
six days a week, twenty-four hours a day, every 45 minutes, the fill had
an average depth of 20 feet and the expanse of the Back Bay to be filled
was roughly 460 acres. A monumental task, it was said that so successful
was the venture that by 1885, only a small area was left to be infilled
near the Back Bay Fens.
In this photographic history of the Back Bay of Boston Anthony M.
Sammarco, with the contemporary photographs of Peter B. Kingman, has
created a fascinating book that chronicles the neighborhood from the
late nineteenth century through to today. Walking along Arlington,
Boylston, Newbury Streets, Commonwealth, Huntington and Massachusetts
Avenues and stopping at Park Square and Copley Square, this visually
fascinating book offers a fascinating glimpse of the Back Bay of Boston
Through Time.
