Waterfront

Back Bay is the neighborhood people picture when they picture Boston: block after block of Victorian brownstones along tree-lined streets, running from the Public Garden west to Massachusetts Avenue. It’s an unusual thing to find in a city built on cowpaths, because none of it is accidental — the entire district was engineered, filled in from tidal marsh between 1857 and the 1890s and laid out on a French-inspired grid, with cross streets running in alphabetical order from Arlington to Hereford. Today the housing ranges from parlor-floor brownstone conversions to full-service towers near the Prudential Center, and nearly every address is within walking distance of Newbury Street, the Esplanade along the Charles, and three subway lines.

Location: Between the Public Garden and Massachusetts Avenue, bounded by the Charles River to the north and Huntington Avenue to the south

Built: 1857–1890s, on filled tidal marshland

Designation: National Historic Landmark District

Housing: Brownstone condo conversions, full-service high-rises, a small number of single-family townhouses

Transit: Green Line (Arlington, Copley, Hynes), Orange Line and commuter rail (Back Bay Station)

Landmarks: Trinity Church, Boston Public Library, Commonwealth Avenue Mall, Newbury Street, the Esplanade