Beacon Hill
Beacon Hill is a 19th century Boston neighborhood known for its narrow streets, brick sidewalks, traditional gas lighting, and the most expensive residential property in the United States. Covering a little over a square mile, the neighborhood straddles the remains of the highest hill in Boston. The hill was known as Beacon Hill because of a large beacon that was originally located at its summit. Most of the hill was cut down and used as land fill for the Back Bay during the mid-19th century.
During the early 1600s all of Beacon Hill was owned by William Blackstone, the first resident of the Boston area. He eventually sold the land to the Puritans. The famous Boston painter John Singleton Copley owned most of Beacon Hill and used it as a cow pasture through the mid 1800s. After the hill was cut down, row houses and stables were quickly built. Beacon Hill was fully developed by 1850. As real estate values have risen and the horse was displaced as the primary mode of transportation, most of the stables have been replaced with apartment buildings and more modern row houses. The side of the hill facing the Boston Common (known as the South Slope) was inhabited by upper-class Bostonians, while the side of the hill facing the Charles River (the North Slope) was home to a large African-American community. The relatively flat area west of Charles Street was created with landfill during the mid-19th century and is known as the "Flat of the Hill".
Present-day Beacon Hill is overwhelmingly residential. Most of the buildings in the area are three to five story red brick row houses in variations of the Federal style. The Charles Bulfinch-designed Massachusetts State House with its instantly recognizable gold dome sits at the top of Beacon Hill.
Recently Added Buildings
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Beacon Hill Streets
- Acorn Street
- Anderson Street
- Beacon Street
- Beaver Place
- Beaver Street
- Bellingham Place
- Bowdoin Street
- Branch Street
- Brimmer Street
- Byron Street
- Cambridge Street
- Cedar Lane Way
- Champney Place
- Charles Street
- Charles River Square
- Chestnut Street
- David G. Mugar Way
- Derne Street
- Garden Street
- Goodwin Place
- Grove Street
- Hancock Street
- Irving Street
- Joy Street
- Lime Street
- Lindall Place
- Louisburg Square
- Mount Vernon Place
- Mount Vernon Square
- Mount Vernon Street
- Myrtle Street
- Otis Place
- Phillips Street
- Pinckney Street
- Primus Avenue
- Revere Street
- Ridgeway Lane
- River Street
- River Street Place
- Rollins Place
- Sentry Hill Place
- Smith Court
- South Russell Street
- Spruce Street
- Strong Place
- Temple Street
- Walnut Street
- West Cedar Street
- West Hill Place
- Willow Place