Photos

Marlborough Street is the quiet street in the Back Bay, but it has the area's most colorful assortment of flowering trees and plants. This section of Boston dates from the late 19th century, when it was developed by filling in a body of water--a bay on the side of Boston's original peninsula away from the ocean (hence the name Back Bay). Unlike other older sections of Boston, the Back Bay is an orderly grid of right-angled cross streets, running in alphabetical order (from Arlington to Hereford). In its early years, Henry James considered the Back Bay a lesser imitation of a section of London, but this area continues to be one of the most attractive parts of the city to live in (for those who can afford it) and, for the rest of us, to walk through.