Bowdoin Square (Boston) Explained

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] The urban renewal project in the West End in the 1950s removed Green Street and Chardon Street, which formerly ran into the square, and renamed some existing streets; it is now 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)
• United States Court House (19th century)^[11]
• Bowdoin Square Hotel^[12]
• Bowdoin Square Theatre^[13]

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

• 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

Notes and References

1. [Boston Directory]
2. Daily Atlas (Boston), April 2, 1844.
3. Boston Directory. 1823
4. Massachusetts Centinel; Date: 07-02-1788
5. Boston Street Laying-Out Dept. A record of the streets, alleys, places, etc. in the city of Boston
6. Book: Alan Emmet . Radishes and orchids: the Boott's garden in Boston . So Fine a Prospect: Historic New England Gardens . Hanover, NH . University Press of New England . 1997.
7. State Street Trust Company. Forty of Boston's Historic Houses. 1912.
8. Robert Woodward Cushman. Bowdoin Square Church Book: comprising a brief history of the formation and organizations of the church : a list of its members : its articles of faith, covenant, etc. Boston: Samuel N. Dickinson, 1843
9. King's hand-book of Boston. 1889. Includes illustration of the church.
10. "Parson Downs squelched, The Boston Baptists drop the Bowdoin-Square Church." New York Times, Sep 16, 1886. p.1.
11. Boston Directory. 1856.
12. "Boston hotel on fire; The Bowdoin Square House Damaged and Two inmates Injured." New York Times, Feb 28, 1902. p.6.
13. "A Boston Theatre Sold: The Bowdoin Square Bid Off, After Many Adjournments, for $96,000." New York Times, Aug 8, 1893. p.1.