Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts - Definition and Overview

Other places are also named Beacon Hill.

Beacon Hill is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts covering approximately one square mile (2.6 km²) and home to about 10,000 people. It is a wealthy neighborhood of Federal rowhouses, with some of the highest property values in the United States. It is known for its narrow streets, brick sidewalks, and gas-lit streets. It is located just north of Boston Common and the Boston Public Garden and is bounded by Beacon Street, Bowdoin Street, Cambridge Street and Storrow Drive along the riverfront of the Charles River Esplanade.

The warm south slope of Beacon Hill facing the Common, was the socially desirable side in the 19th century. Black Beacon Hill was on the chillier north slope, above the red-light district of Scollay Square. The two Hills were largely united on one subject: Abolition. Beacon hill was one of the staunchest centers of the anti-slavery movement in the Antebellum era.

Beacon Hill has been home to many notable persons, including:

• Charles Bulfinch
• John Singleton Copley
• John Hancock
• Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
• Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
• John Kerry
• Henry Cabot Lodge
• James Russell Lowell
• Robert Lowell
• Sylvia Plath
• Anne Sexton
• Carly Simon
• David Lee Roth

Sites of interest in Beacon Hill include:

• Bull and Finch Bar (Beacon Street): Source of inspiration and exterior shots for Cheers television show.
• Massachusetts State House (Beacon Street): Home of the state's government
• Mt. Vernon Street: "The finest address in all America"
• Suffolk University

External links

• Beacon Hill Online (http://www.beaconhillonline.com)
• Black beacon Hill (http://jsons.collegepublisher.com/news/2004/02/04/Neighborhoods/Beacon.Hill.Home.To.Black.History.In.Boston-620979.shtml)