Eagle Hill Historic District

Eagle Hill is a hilltop neighborhood in East Boston, Massachusetts, built mostly in the third quarter of the nineteenth century on land subdivided and sold by the East Boston Company. Its streets follow the contours of the hill, and most houses are two-and-a-half or three stories with narrow three-bay facades, built as single dwellings, duplexes or rows. Greek Revival houses came first, followed by a large number of Italianate buildings, with Queen Anne, Classical and Colonial Revival infill. Early residents included clipper ship builders such as Donald McKay, whose 1844 house stands at 80 White Street. A few large villa-style houses stand on spacious lots, while churches, schools and a former fire station add institutional variety. Later growth served a skilled working-class and middle-class population. With 437 contributing buildings and little demolition since, the district keeps a remarkably intact nineteenth-century urban character, which is why it was listed.