| |
Home > Boston's Neighborhoods
> Fenway/Kenmore
Learn more
about your ancestor's neighborhood through the timeline, find more information
in the Further Reading section, or use the links to experience life in
that community today.
Timeline
- 3000-1500
BC: Indians construct fish wiers in the Back Bay. Evidence is first
found in 1913 when excavating for the subway under Boylston Street.
- 1630:
John Winthrop sends out colonists from the Massachusetts Bay Company
to find suitable sites near rivers around the Boston colony. William
Pynchon heads the group which claims Roxbury
two miles to the south. Pynchon is the earlier name of Columbus Avenue.
Many of these Roxbury settlers come from Essex County in the east of
England.
- 1658:
John Pierpont builds a tidal mill where the Stony Brook empties
into the tidal basin of the Back Bay near what is now the intersection
of Ruggles and Parker streets.
- 1775:
General George Washington builds a ring of fortifications on the hills
surrounding Boston during the Siege of Boston by the British in the
Revolutionary War. A redoubt (earthen fortification) is built to protect
Roxbury town landing which is near the intersection of Ruggles and Parker
Streets.
- 1813:
Uriah Cotting proposes building a dam across the Back Bay in an attempt
to provide Boston with more mill sites (81) than in any other American
seaport. The main dam is now Beacon St. and the cross dam, which divided
the Back Bay into a full basin and a receiving basin, is now Parker/Hemenway
Street. The mills are located on Gravelly Point where the Christian
Science Church is now. The mills when built in 1818-1821 are not a success
since there is not adequate power for the tidal mills and it prevented
the sewage which drained into the receiving basin from the surrounding
areas from being carried off by the tides.
- 1820:
Two Breweries are first attracted to this area by springs along the
Stony Brook. In the years prior to Prohibition, Boston has more breweries
per capita than any other American city. Most of the breweries are owned
and operated by German immigrant master brewers and their families.
By the early 20th century, skilled German workers are doing
the inside work while Irish workers are doing the teaming.
- 1825:
Ruggles Street is named in honor of the Ruggles family who figure prominently
in the early history of Roxbury and fight on both sides during the Revolutionary
War. Parts of Ruggles Street were laid out in 1663 where it and Cabot
Street form the old town way that lead to Gravelly Point, now the area
around Massachusetts Avenue.
- 1834:
Sewall and Day Cordage Mill is built on Parker Street near where the
Museum of Fine Arts is now. Because of its innovative manufacturing
techniques, it becomes the largest cordage mill in Boston, outfitting
many of the clipper ships. The Sewall and Day Cordage Mill constructs
housing for their workers on Parker Hill. Both the Boston and Worcester
Railroad and the Boston and Providence Railroad are laid across the
Back Bay, the former where the Framingham/Worcester commuter rail is
now and the latter where the MBTA Orange Line runs. The two sets of
tracks cross near the present Back Bay MBTA station. The railroad embankments
further impede the flow of water in the Back Bay.
- 1854:
The Back Bay has become a cesspool and it is decided to fill in the
area enclosed by the Mill Dam and to extend the sewers out beyond the
dam. The Boston Water Power Company, which operates the mills, and the
state divide the receiving basin with the state getting the area between
Exeter and Fairfield Streets and the Boston Water Power Company, the
rest. The land is to be developed to keep wealthy residents in the city
rather than moving to the suburbs to flee the Irish. The wealthy residents
are valued as both voters and taxpayers.
- 1869:
Many of the German families who own and staff the Stony Brook breweries
are Roman Catholics and they persuade the Catholic Church to invite
the largely German Order of the Sons of St. Alphonsus (Redemptorists)
to establish a mission in their neighborhood. The Basilica of Our Lady
of Perpetual Help (the Mission Church as it is more commonly known)
is built from 1876 to 1878. The congregation grows rapidly and becomes
predominately Irish. By the early 1890s there are more than 9,000 members
and Parker Hill becomes more commonly known as Mission Hill.
- 1871:
Professional baseball is first played in Boston on the South End Grounds
on Walpole Street off of Columbus Avenue. In 1897 the Boston Bean Eaters
(later renamed the Boston Braves) capture the National League Championship.
In 1953 the Boston Braves leave for Milwaukee.
- 1872:
The Great Fire of Boston consumes 65 acres and leaves a charred center
where much of Boston's Financial District has been. In the late 1800s,
a number of institutions including the Massachusetts Historical Society,
the First Church of Christ, Scientist, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra
decide to resettle near the Fens instead of downtown.
- 1875:
Boston establishes a three member Park Commission to create healthful
recreational lands for the rapidly growing city. The tidal marshes and
flats of the Back Bay are polluted by the Muddy River and the Stony
Brook (the Stony Brook Valley has become increasingly industrialized)
and are prone to flooding. In the mid-19th century, Boston
waste water, and sewage are carried off by a system of storm drains
and sewers that empties at the nearest shoreline.
- 1876:
The first Museum of Fine Arts
building is completed on the present site of Copley Plaza hotel.
- 1881:
Col. Henry Lee Higginson funds and establishes the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
The Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association is the first institution
to move into the Fenway and is built on Huntington Avenue and West Newton
Street. The New England Manufacturers and Mechanics Institute is built
further up on Huntington Avenue on what is now Northeastern University's
campus. It is largest structure of its kind in the world.
- 1881-1885:
Frederick Law Olmstead
designs and constructs a park which solves the major drainage, flooding,
and pollution problem caused by the sewage and stagnant waters of the
Muddy River and the Stony Brook that flow into the Back Bay. Earth moving
and dredging operations reshape the Muddy River and the salt marshes
and the Stony Brook is put into a conduit. The land is then replanted
to look like a fresh water marsh on the Muddy River and a salt-water
marsh on what Olmstead names the Back Bay Fens. This becomes the first
in a series of connected parks and waterways now known as the Emerald
Necklace. Later landfill is added to the two existing peninsulas in
the area 1.) Gravelly Point, now the site of the Christian Science Church
Complex, and 2.) Sewall's Point, which includes the present Kenmore
Square and Audubon Circle. Because of the dams and railroads across
the Charles River Basin, these new neighborhoods develop their own street
grids.
- 1881-1914:
Children's Hospital is built on Huntington Avenue near where the Boston
Symphony Orchestra is now.
- 1883:
The Huntington Avenue Land development, which has been delayed by the
Great Fire of 1872 and the Panic of 1873 is now moving forward and Massachusetts
Institute of Technology has purchased a site along the Boston and Providence
Railroad. Huntington Avenue is named for Ralph Huntington (1784-1866),
the former president of the Boston and Roxbury Company which built the
Mill Dam.
- 1885-1890:
Batavia (now Symphony) Road is laid.
- 1886:
Franklin Park is finished, completing Frederick Law Olmstead's Emerald
Necklace.
- 1888-1920:
Westland Avenue, Astor Street (now Burbank Street) and Gainsboro Street
are laid
- 1890s:
Tuft's School of Medicine and Dentistry are built on Huntington Avenue,
now part of Northeastern University's campus. Later Tufts relocates
these schools to a more downtown location while other medical schools
move out to the Longwood Medical Area.
- 1892:
Street railway lines run on Huntington Avenue, and Boston Street, Massachusetts
Ave., and Boylston Street. The electrification of the trolley system
is complete.
- 1894:
The First Church of Christ, Scientist opens on Caledonian (now Norway
Street) and Falmouth Street.
- 1898:
What is now Northeastern University is founded as part of the Boston
YMCA. The University develops along Huntington Avenue, with gradual
growth acceleration in the 1950s and 1960 setting the pace in establishing
cooperative education among American universities.
- 1899:
The Massachusetts Historical Society,
which was founded in 1791, moves to the Fenway at 1154 Boylston Street.
Their new home is designed by Wheelwright and Haven. Robert Treet Paine
builds the first house in the Audubon Road (now Park Drive) and Queensbury
Street area. Paine, the philanthropist who founded the Wells Memorial
Workingman's Institute in 1879, is also involved with the American Peace
Society and the Watch and Ward Society. Architect C.A. Cummings, who
also designs the Old South Church on Boylston Street, designs the home.
- 1900:
Boston Symphony Orchestra moves from
the Music Hall in downtown Boston to its new home on Massachusetts and
Huntington Avenues. The building is designed by the distinguished New
York architectural firm McKim, Mead, and White in collaboration with
Harvard scientist and acoustic expert Wallace Clement Sabine. It is
the first music hall ever to have rationally planned acoustics.The Boston
Medical Library opens on the Fenway and the building is now part of
the Boston Conservatory of Music.
- 1901:
Horticultural Hall, of the Massachusetts
Horticultural Society, founded in 1829, moves from smaller quarters
downtown to its new home on Massachusetts Avenue across from Symphony
Hall. Designed by Wheelwright and Haven, the building features a large
exhibition space for horticultural shows. The Huntington Avenue Baseball
grounds is built on what is now Northeastern University's campus and
is home to the Boston Pilgrims(later called the Boston Red Sox). The
first World Series is played here in 1903 and over the years more than
20 Hall of Famers, including Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, and Connie Mack
played baseball on these grounds.
- 1902:
Avenue Louis Pasteur is proposed to connect the new site of the Harvard
University Medical School to the Back Bay Fens. Simmons
College welcomes its first class of students to its new home on
the Fenway.
- 1903:
The New England Conservatory of Music founded in 1867, moves to its
new building at 290 Huntington Avenue which is designed by Wheelwright
and Haven.The United Drug (Rexall) is established on Leon Street, now
part of Northeastern University's campus, and becomes the headquarters
of the world's largest organization of franchised drugstores. Cotting
School for Handicapped Children is built on St. Botolph Street. Jordan
Hall is built and is the gift of Eben D. Jordan, the founder of Jordan
Marsh. Mrs. Isabella Stewart
Gardner opens her "palace," reminiscent of the Doges'
Palace in Venice, and designed with a plant filled interior courtyard
by Willard T. Sears as a home for herself and her art collections at
280 The Fenway. Originally she had planned to expand into the neighboring
town house in Back Bay but her husband who had ties to Boston Brahmin
Society, boldly suggests building in the newly filled Fenway area. She
celebrates the opening by purchasing Titian's Rape of Europa
and Rembrant's Self Portrait and is wisely guided in her selections
by Bernard Berenson.
- 1904:
Simmons College moves to its new home
at 300 The Fenway that is designed by Peabody and Stearns.
- 1906:
Fenway Studios Building is constructed at 30 Ipswich Street and is designed
as studios and living spaces for artists by Parker and Thomas and modeled
after the ateliers in Paris. The building was conceived of and funded
by Eben Jordan, the founder of Jordan Marsh Company and a patron of
the arts. Harvard Medical College constructs five marble buildings designed
in the Classical Revival style by Shepley, Rutan, and Collidge on Longwood
Avenue at Avenue Louis Pasteur.
- 1908:
Boston Opera House is built on Huntington Avenue at Opera Place as a
gift from Eben D. Jordan, founder of Jordan Marsh. The huge theater
had 2750 seats and boxes and was designed by Wheelwright and Haven.
Enrico Caruso performs there in 1912, his only Boston appearance. The
building is demolished in 1958 and the site is now part of Northeastern
University's campus.
- 1909:
The Museum of Fine Arts moves from its Copley Square location to Huntington Avenue as does
the School of the Museum of Fine Arts which was founded in 1877.
- 1910:
The Charles River Dam is constructed and the tidal flooding (and cleansing)
of the Back Bay Fens abruptly stops. Olmstead's thoughtfully recreated
salt marsh dies off and the area is again foul. Boston Arena is built
on St. Botolph Street and it is the oldest indoor ice arena in the country.
The arena also houses other major sporting activities including the
Bruins (1924) and the Celtics (1946) first ever home games. Now known
as Matthews Arena, it has been renovated and is part of Northeastern
University.
- 1911
& 1916: Wentworth Institute of Technology is built at 360 Ruggles
Street by Kilham and Hopkins.
- 1912:
Peter Bent Brigham Hospital
is built on Huntington Avenue and Francis Street on land sold to them
by Harvard so the medical students could have clinical training in hospitals
near the school, an innovative idea at the turn of the century. The
hospital is designed by Codman and Despradelle. Blackstone Cigar Factory
is built at 716 Columbus and is the largest in the world. The building
has been renovated and is part of Northeastern University. The Boston
Red Sox celebrate their first baseball season in Fenway Park by winning
the World Series against the New York Giants. Today the Landsdowne Street
area is also home to a thriving night club scene.
- 1913:
The Boston YMCA is completed at 312-320 Huntington Avenue from a design
by Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge. The first YMCA in this country, it
was founded in 1851 and later offers educational programs that develop
into Northeastern University.
- 1914:
Childrens Hospital move to 300 Longwood on land that was sold to them
by Harvard so their students could have clinical training. The hospital
is designed by Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge.The Forsyth Institute (formerly
the Forsyth Dental Center) is built at 140 The Fenway to provide dental
care for children and training for clinicians. The building is designed
by Edwars T.P. Graham and is a gift from the Forsyth brothers. Wheelock
College, which is founded in 1888, opens on the Riverway. The College
focuses on teaching, child life, and social work. The Students House
is built at 96 The Fenway and provides supervised housing for young
women attending nearby colleges. Women from Emmanual Church in the Back
Bay first start this much needed service in rental facilities in 1902.
The building is designed by Kilham and Hopkins, a Boston architectural
firm interested in housing reform and is now part of the Northeastern
University campus.
- 1916:
The famed Reverend Billy Sunday (the "Baseball Evangelist")
preaches to 1,500,000 people in his portable tabernacle on Huntington
Avenue (now part of the Northeastern University campus) during the ten
weeks he is in Boston. 64,484 come forward to declare themselves converted.
- 1917:
The Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Allied Health builds on Longwood
Avenue. Founded in 1823, it is the second oldest college of pharmacy
in the United States.
- 1918:
The School of Practical Arts is founded. Now known as the Art Institute
of Boston, it is associated with Lesley College and is located at 700
Beacon Street.
- 1919:
Emmanuel College is founded
as a convent and academy. Mainnis and Walsh, architects for many of
Boston's Roman Catholic institutions, design the building at 400 The
Fenway.
- 1920s
-1930s: The Back Bay Fens is largely redesigned in a more formal
style by landscape architect Arthur Shurcliff, who reconfigured the
waterway to form a reflecting pool for the new Fenway façade
of the Museum of Fine Arts, filled in the lagoons for playing fields,
and added a formal rose garden.
- 1920s-1940s:
Massachusetts Avenue is known as Little Harlem for its jazz night life.
Duke Ellington, Billie Holliday, and Ella Fitzgerald all perform here.
It is the era of the big band, ballrooms, nightclubs, theaters, and
first run movie houses.
- 1922:
Boston Latin School moves to 78 Avenue Louis Pasteur in a building designed
by James McLauglin. Originally founded in Roxbury in 1635, Boston Latin
School is the oldest public school in the United States.The Harvard
School of Public Health is established in the Longwood Medical Area.
- 1923:
The Greek Orthodox Cathedral of New England is built at 520 Parker Street.
The exterior is designed by Worcester architect, Hachadoor S. Demoorjian,
and the interior is the unique collaboration of three of Boston's most
important designers and scholars: Ralph Adam Cram (chair of MIT School
of Architecture), Kenneth Conant (Harvard professor), and Charles J.
Connick (a noted stain glass designer). The first Greek Orthodox Church
in Boston is first established in rental quarters in 1899 and then in
its own building on Winchester Street in 1907, which was the fourth
Greek Orthodox in America. Between the 1890s and 1910 many Greeks emigrate
to Boston and later a number of Greek immigrants who had settled in
small New England towns move to Boston.
- 1928:
The Sears Building is completed at the intersection of Brookline Avenue
and Park Drive as a retail store and mail order facility for Sears,
Roebuck, & Co. This is the last of ten Sears mail order plants around
the nation designed by Chicago architect George C. Nimmons. The facility
adds 1200 new jobs to the economy and the post office opens a parcel
branch on site to handle the added volume. Sears closes the facility
in the mid 1980s but it reopens after extensive renovations in 2000
as Landmark Center.
- 1930:
Massachusetts College of Art,
founded in 1873, builds on Brookline Avenue in the Fenway. Later it
moves to Huntington Avenue to the former Boston Normal School. Massachusetts
College of Art is the only public art school in the country.
- 1936:
The Boston Conservatory, founded in 1867, moves to the building on the
Fenway that was formerly the Boston Medical Library.
- 1941:
The Huntington Avenue line of the MBTA opens.
- 1945:
Berklee College of Music is founded
and is located on Massachusetts Avenue.
- 1947:
The National Braille Press, which
was founded in 1927, moves to St. Stephen Street in the Fenway.
- 1950:
Holy Trinity Orthodox Church, which has its first church in Boston in
1910, builds on Park Drive. The Russian Orthodox religion had spread
from Alaska to California during the gold rush and also from the Russian
immigrants coming to the East Coast.
- 1959:
Cardinal Richard Cushing, Archbishop of Boston, buys the State Theater
from Loews for the Catholic Church. However, the project proves too
expensive so he leases the building to Carmel Quinn, an Irish singer,
and her husband. Later, the building is sold to the Christian Science
Church.
- 1996:
Colleges of the Fenway is formed. Emmanuel College, the Massachusetts
College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Sciences, Wentworth Institute
of Technology, and Wheelock College join together to form a consortium.
- 1998:
The Mayor of Boston declares Huntington Avenue as the Avenue of the
Arts and the area extending from Copley Square through the Fenway to
the Longwood Medical Area as the Fenway Cultural District.
- 1999:
After three devastating floods in two years, the governor, the city
of Boston, and the town of Brookline start the greatest restoration
of the Emerald Necklace since its creation by Frederick Law Olmstead
over one hundred years ago.
Further Reading
- Fenway. The Boston 200 Neighborhood History Series. Boston: Boston
200 Corporation, 1976.
Links
|
