South End District (Boundary Increase II)

Boston's South End is a densely built Victorian neighborhood of 238 acres, laid out from 1848 and developed partly on filled land into the early 1870s. Its streets are lined with four-story brick and brownstone rowhouses, most of them bow-fronted with mansard roofs and Italianate detailing, arranged around landscaped residential squares such as Union Park, Worcester Square, Chester Square and Blackstone and Franklin Squares. The city sold the land with limits on height, materials, setback and building form, and speculative builders produced a notably uniform streetscape. Wealthy families moved on to the Back Bay within about twenty years, and working-class and immigrant residents followed, yet the architecture stayed cohesive. Churches such as the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, and buildings including the Allen House and the Franklin Square House, give the district landmarks. It was recognized as the largest remaining Victorian urban residential neighborhood in the country.