South End District

Boston's South End is a 238-acre district of brick and brownstone rowhouses arranged around landscaped residential squares, planned in 1848 and built up partly on filled land through the early 1870s. The city sold the land at auction with rules on height, materials, setback and building form, and developers built homes for businessmen and industrialists. The result is a notably uniform streetscape of bow-fronted, mansard-roofed Italianate rowhouses, with Union Park, Worcester, Chester, Blackstone, Franklin, Concord and Rutland Squares as focal points. Later, wealthy families moved to the Back Bay, and working-class and immigrant residents took their place, yet the architecture stayed cohesive and high in quality. Notable buildings include the Allen House, built in 1859 for a furniture dealer, the Franklin Square House, and churches such as the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. The district is described as the largest remaining Victorian urban residential neighborhood in the country.