Boston's Back Bay: The Story of America's Greatest Nineteenth-Century Landfill Project

by William A. Newman, Wilfred E. Holton

Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood is well known today for its upscale residences, high-rise office buildings, fine hotels, and excellent restaurants. Extending from Arlington Street to Massachusetts Avenue, and from the Charles River to the Amtrak and MBTA tracks, the neighborhood includes Commonwealth Avenue, Newbury Street, Boylston Street, the John Hancock and Prudential towers, Copley Square, and the Charles River Esplanade. The Back Bay today contributes heavily to Boston’s image as a prosperous, modern city with a rich historical legacy.Before 1820, however, this region was a tidal marsh that appeared to early settlers as a large bay behind the town when it filled with high-tide water twice each day. Only one road, now Washington Street, extended across a narrow peninsula and connected Boston to the mainland. In the early nineteenth century, Boston expanded by filling in some shallow areas around the edge of the Back Bay. Two dams, constructed to generate power using the tides, cut off the area from the Charles River, dividing it into two the “Full Basin” and the “Receiving Basin.” This book focuses on filling the Back Bay’s largest section, the Receiving Basin. By the 1850s, pollution of the former tidal marsh and severe overcrowding in Boston inspired plans to fill the Receiving Basin. Work on the landfill began in earnest in 1858 and was completed around 1890—and remains the largest residential and commercial landfill project ever carried out in the United States.Opening with a look at the geological history of the Back Bay and its life as a tidal marsh, this fascinating narrative examines the roles of planners, politicians, engineers, and contractors who made it possible to dump millions of tons of sand and gravel into the marsh. Innovative new technologies were needed to excavate, move, and grade the heavy loads, and to construct substantial buildings on very soft ground. Newman and Holton tap into a wide variety of primary sources including rare maps and plans, photography collections, corporate and railroad archives, political documents, deeds, mortgages, and bankruptcy records, all of which underscore the significance of the Back Bay landfill as a central component of Boston’s development from a small town to a major metropolis in the nineteenth century.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

249 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the kind of book that would make my dear non-reading mother say with concern "...honey, are you running out of things to read?" It's a book about landfill. Not even landfilling in general, one particular landfill project.  

But really, this particular landfill project is kind of amazing. Imagine what an enormous project it would be now, to eliminate an entire ocean bay. And this was done in the era before telephones, gas-powered construction vehicles, etc. were available.

I was surprised to learn one of the primary reasons for building Back Bay, other than the pollution the salt marshes collected and the fact that Boston as a city required more land than it had, was to slow the trend of suburbanization. Wealthy Protestants in the mid-1800s were apparently commuting from other towns, with more land and nicer houses and less of the city riffraff, by railroad. This being a trend we tend to not think of as occurring until post-World War 2. I mean, it makes sense- WASPers hated immigrants, especially the Irish who were flooding in around then- but it's still surprising.

The illustrations are on point. I particularly liked the reconstruction of the fish weir discovered in Back Bay from thousands of years ago, and the pre-Back Bay-filling view of Boston from approximately the Mass Ave subway station today. Really helps you mentally dissect the Boston of yesteryear.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the kind of book that you can read at night to help you fall asleep, BUT it is intriguing enough that you still want to try reading it again the next night. (From me, that is a recommendation!)

The first few chapters and the end were easier for me to follow and engage with than the middle segment on railroads and gravel pits but I appreciate the thoroughness of the authors’ research.

[Scot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up because of my familiarity with Boston. It connected many of the names and places I know and added a lot of context to how and why thing are the way they are in and around town.

I can’t imagine it really offers anything to someone not familiar with the area, unless you are super into land filling or old time construction for some reason.

[Matthias Ferber]

Spotted at Felix's

[Hubert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating! You get to learn a lot about how the Back Bay was formed. Full of geologic, engineering, and sociological details of Boston in the late 1850s to early 1870s.

[MHS Reference Librarian]

Ordered 11/2015