Boston Back Bay

When you look at the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, it's obvious that its history is much different than most of the rest of the city. Back Bay is nearly uniform brownstones buildings in a neat grid centered on the wide tree-filled boulevard of Commonwealth Ave. All of Back Bay was built in the late 1800s as the city turned its ecological disaster of sewage-filled tidal flats into new land. Wrapping around it are parks, Boston Common and the Public Garden below, then wrapping up along the Olmstead-designed "Emerald Necklace" of the Esplanade by the river on the right and the Fenway going from the river off to the upper left past the ball park and on out of the picture toward Jamaica Plain and the Arboretum.