Bowdoin Square (Boston)

Bowdoin Square, Boston, c. 1880

Bowdoin Square (established 1788) in Boston, Massachusetts was located in the West End. In the 18th and 19th centuries it featured residential houses, leafy trees, a church, hotel, theatre and other buildings. Among the notables who have lived in the square: physician Thomas Bulfinch; merchant Kirk Boott;^[1][2] and mayor Theodore Lyman.^[3] Since the 20th century the area has become a traffic intersection at Cambridge Street, Bowdoin Street, and New Chardon Street.^[4][5] Bowdoin Square is served by the MBTA Blue Line station Bowdoin.

Brief history

Some of the features of Bowdoin Square in its heyday included:

• Kirk Boott house (built 1804). "The half-acre lot on which Boott build his brick house was then a pasture in Boston's West End, an area that was just beginning to be developed. Boott's 3-story Federal mansion, with its tall Palladian windows lighting the staircase overlooking the garden, was very likely designed by Charles Bulfinch."^[6]
• Samuel Parkman house (built c. 1816). "The large granite double house which stood for years at the western end of Bowdoin Square was built about 1816 by Hon. Samuel Parkman, a rich merchant. He was father of Dr.George Parkman who was murdered in 1849 by John White Webster, ... [and] grandfather of Francis Parkman, the historian."^[7]
• Baptist Tabernacle (built 1840); also known as the Bowdoin-Square Church or the Bowdoin Square Baptist Church^[8][9][10]
• Revere House hotel (1847-1912)^[9]
• United States Court House (19th century)^[11]
• Bowdoin Square Hotel^[12]
• Bowdoin Square Theatre^[13][12]

Images

• 
  House built by Thomas Bulfinch II, after 1722. His grandson Charles Bulfinch was born here^[14]
• 
  Kirk Boott house, built 1804
• 
  Samuel Parkman house, built c. 1816
• 
  Daniel Webster, 1850 ("A great crowd had collected ... and on his appearance in a barouche, he was enthusiastically cheered."^[15]
• 
  Bowdoin Square Baptist Church, built 1840^[16]
• 
  Railroad Jubilee, 1854
• 
  U.S. Court House, Bowdoin Square, c. 1856; engraving by Samuel Smith Kilburn, Ballou's Pictorial
• 
  Detail of 1883 map of Boston, showing Bowdoin Square at intersection of Green, Chardon, Court, Bowdoin and Cambridge Streets
• 
  1883
• 
  Intersection of Cambridge, New Chardon and Bowdoin Streets, Boston, 2010

References

Further reading

• Fire in Bowdoin Square, Last Evening. Boston Daily Globe, Jan 7, 1874. p.1.
• Bowdoin Square Literary Union Entertainment. Boston Daily Globe (1872-1922); Boston, Mass. Dec 1, 1875. p.4.
• The Outside Show: Illuminations Along the Line of March- Columns Avenue a Blaze of Light--The Display Elsewhere--Some of the More Prominent Illuminations and Decorations. Boston Daily Globe, Oct 27, 1876. p.8.
• Twelve missing in Boston fire; Blaze Starts in Old Revere House and Spreads to Nearby Buildings. New York Times, Jan 16, 1912. p.1.
• Robert Campbell. From square to bare; once filled with stately homes, Bowdoin Square's modern incarnation is decidedly less impressive. Boston Globe. May 21, 2006.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bowdoin Square (Boston, Massachusetts).

• Library of Congress. A Group of Boot-Blacks in Bowdoin Square, a Passing Juvenile Industry. Location: Boston, Massachusetts. Photo by Lewis Hine, 1909
• Google news archive. Articles about Bowdoin Square
• Flickr. Photo of Cambridge Street looking toward Bowdoin Square, 1950s
• Flickr. Photos of area that was Bowdoin Square by Gig Harmon, 2009
• Flickr. Gleason's. Cambridge omnibus, Benjamin Franklin, passing Bowdoin Square church in a snow storm, 1852
• Flickr. Boston and Cambridge New Horse Railroad (Bowdoin Square), c. 1856 engraving

Streets and squares in Boston
Streets	Arborway Atlantic Avenue Beacon Street Bennington Street Blue Hills Parkway Bowdoin Street Boylston Street Brattle Street Brookline Avenue Charles Street Columbus Avenue Commonwealth Avenue Congress Street Court Street Day Boulevard Dorchester Avenue Federal Street Fenway Franklin Street Gallivan Boulevard Hanover Street Huntington Avenue Jamaicaway Massachusetts Avenue Melnea Cass Boulevard Memorial Drive Milk Street Morrissey Boulevard Morton Street Neptune Road New Chardon Street Newbury Street North Street Park Street Park Drive Riverway School Street Soldiers Field Road State Street Stony Brook Reservation Parkways Storrow Drive Summer Street Tremont Street Truman Parkway Union Street Veterans of Foreign Wars Parkway Washington Street West Roxbury Parkway Winter Street Yawkey Way
Squares, circles, crossings and corners	Adams Square Andrew Square Blackstone Square Brigham Circle Central Square Chester Square City Square Cleveland Circle Codman Square Copley Square Day Square Dewey Square Dock Square Downtown Crossing Dudley Square Egleston Square Fields Corner Franklin Square Haymarket Square Hyde Square Jackson Square Kenmore Square Louisburg Square Maverick Square Packard's Corner Park Square Peabody Square Post Office Square Roxbury Crossing Scollay Square Sullivan Square Teele Square Thompson Square Union Square Uphams Corner
Italics denote streets and squares that no longer exist. See also Neighborhoods in Boston Transportation in Boston