Re: Greenway Center (Bulfinch Triangle)
I don't know exactly how the Back Bay got developed and parcelled out, but presumably it started out as publicly-owned land as it was filled, and then was sold off as many tiny lots?
(Not that this worked out nearly so well on the Cambridge side; most of the land stayed empty until MIT bought it all up)
Ron, -- Look at the Book by Nancy Seaholes about the filling and building history of Boston or stuff on the web about the history of the Back Bay
e.g. from City of Boston:
"The Back Bay was planned as a fashionable residential district, and was laid out as such by the architect Arthur Gilman in 1856. Having travelled to Paris, Gilman was familiar with Baron Haussmann’s plan for the new layout of that city and this inspiration reflected a growing American interest in French architecture and city planning.
As the tidal flats were slowly filled in, beginning at edge of the Public Garden and extending westward, residential construction followed. Because the land filling efforts proceeded slowly, construction advanced concurrently on filled-in lots as they became available. As a result, most blocks in the Back Bay date from approximately the same era and, when viewed in sequence, illustrate the changing tastes in and stylistic evolution of American architecture over the course of the mid- to late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Commercial buildings were erected alongside these residential structures, primarily on Newbury and Boylston Streets. Commercial development began on Boylston Street around 1880 and on Newbury Street in the early 20th century. While new structures were built for some of these commercial ventures, others adapted existing row houses for their purposes. This early example of adaptive reuse helped to maintain the Back Bay’s uniform appearance.
The Back Bay has been home to a number of important artists, writers, and philosophers. Oliver Wendell Holmes, George Santayana, John Singer Sargent, and William Morris Hunt are among the many notable figures that lived in the Back Bay. As the site of the original Museum of Fine Arts, the Boston Public Library, the Museum of Natural History, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Back Bay has been an important center for American culture.
Noted architects whose work is represented in the Back Bay include H.H. Richardson, McKim, Mead, and White, Peabody and Stearns, and Richard Morris Hunt, among others. A number of architectural styles are represented in the Back Bay, including Italianate, Gothic, Ruskinian Gothic (also known as High Victorian Gothic), French Academic, Queen Anne, and Panel Brick, along with many of the revival styles, including Italian Renaissance, German Renaissance, Beaux Arts, Chateauesque, Georgian, Federal, and Adamesque."
Capsule history from several sources (Googel filling of Back Bay):
1852 Commissioners on Public Lands establihed
1856 Tripartite Agreement of 1856 between the State of Mass, Boston, and the Boston and Roxbury Mill Corporation-dividing up the lands.
1857 Part of the city land went to develop the Public Garden.
1857 September--Filling of the Back Bay began-average depth of fill 20 feet;
more than 450 acres filled;
streets were filled to grade 17 (17 ft above mean low tide), lots filled to grade 12, so basements would be below street level.
1859 Arlington Street Church built
1860 Filling of Back Bay reached Clarendon Street
1861 State granted a block of Back Bay (Boylston and Berkeley) to the Boston Society of Natural History and MIT
1862 152 Beacon Street-Isabella Stewart Gardner moved in
1862 Emmanuel Church completed (Newbury Street)
1863 MIT located on Boylston-current site of New England Life building
1864 Society of Natural History building completed (Berkeley between Boylston and Newbury)
1865 First statue erected on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall (also see Mall statues)
1868 First Church of 1630 (Unitarian) moved from Chauncey Place to newly completed church designed by Ware and Van Brunt (Berkeley and Marlborough) -- after fire -- now the Paul Rudolph-ed 1st and 2nd Church
1869 Temporary coliseum built in Copley Square. It held the National Peace Jubilee that year, which was attended by President Ulysses Grant
1870 Filling of Back Bay reached Exeter Street
1871 160 Commonwealth, Hotel Vendome, built-first hotel in city with electric lighting, it had an independent lighting plant designed by Edison in 1882
1871 Brattle Square Church (Unitarian) moved to newly built church designed by H.H. Richardson (Commonwealth and Clarendon) aka-"church of the holy bean blowers." Statues on the tower designed by Frederic August Bartholdi, designer of the Statue of Liberty.
1876 Museum of Fine Arts opened in Copley Square
1877 Trinity Church completed, designed by H.H. Richardson
1880 150 Beacon Street-Isabella Stewart Gardner bought to expand her home at 152
1880 Land for the current site of Boston Public Library purchased
1883 Triangle lot bounded by Huntington, Dartmouth, Boylston purchased and named Copley Square
1884 Triangle lot bounded by Huntington, Trinity Place, St. James added to Copley Square to make it a square
1887 Bridge from West Chester park in Boston to Mass Ave in Cambridge authorized
1889 Bay State Road created by dredging the river and filling the Charles Rivers
1890 Filling of Back Bay reached Kenmore Square
1891 Bridge from West Chester Park in Boston to Mass Ave in Cambridge opened to travel, and renamed the John Harvard bridge
1894 West Chester Park renamed Massachusetts Avenue
1895 Boston Public Library opened in Copley Square
1895 Christian Science Church dedicated
1899 Mass Historical society moved from 30 Tremont Street to the newly built 1154 Boylston Street
1900 Filling of Back Bay completed with last few acres of the Fens
The gist was the Commwealth by borrowing money from investors in 1857 began filling the Back Bay paying contractors to:
1) build a rail line from Needham
1) dig the gravel in Needham,
2) transport it by train
3) fill the streets leaving basement holes already made for the houses
4) Then block by block the lots were auctioned to the highest bidder and the proceeds reinvested in doing more filling
5) and so it continued both day and night for decades -- last filling occured in 1900 in the Fens
see for example the original report written for the National Register (circa 1973);
http://www.architecturaltrust.org/images/documents/reports/Report_NR_Back_Bay.pdf
The filling was guided by an overall master grid plan by Gilman with Comm Ave at its core (modeled on the new Paris)
and deed restrictictions:
3 story building cornice line (typically 3 and 4 story buildings reulted as a result of no elevators)
20 and 25 foot setback from the curb,
(+ some French Parisian academic sylistic trends):
sidewalks,
exterior facade materials -- brick or masonry
window (bays, orierls, bows), raised stoops with steps and front or side entry
roof materials (slate) -- gnerally mansard style
The rest was left to the whims of the developers or in many cases owner / developers such as the Gardners who moved from Beacon St on the Hill to the Back Bay
no NIMBYs needed to apply
no Shirley Kressels
no unNM's, etc.
