Boylston Street now reaches Copley Square, which offers perhaps the finest architectural group in Boston, including Trinity Church, the Copley-Plaza Hotel, the Public Library, the New Old South Church, and a number of imposing business structures. (See [illustrations].)
Trinity Church, on the east side of the square, the masterpiece of H. H. Richardson and a typical example of “Richardsonian” architecture, is deservedly regarded as one of the finest buildings in America. Its style may be described as a free treatment of the Romanesque of Central France.
The Public Library, on the west side of the square, designed by McKim, Mead & White, and erected in 1888-1895, is a dignified, simple and scholarly edifice which forms a worthy mate to the Trinity Church. Its style is that of the Roman Renaissance.
The New Old South Church, so called as the successor of the Old South Church, is a fine building in the Italian Gothic style, with a tower two hundred and forty-eight feet in height. The marbles and ornamental stone work are very fine.
Huntington Avenue, which diverges to the left from Boylston Street at Copley Square, contains many important buildings. This thoroughfare, and the district known as the Back Bay Fens, is celebrated for its cultural institutions. Among them are Mechanics Hall, Horticultural Hall, the imposing Symphony Hall, the New England Conservatory of Music, and the new Opera House—all in Huntington Avenue. Just beyond this is the New Museum of Fine Arts, a large granite edifice by Guy Lowell, admirably adapted for its ends. Farther out, at the corner of Longwood Avenue, are the extensive new buildings of the Harvard Medical School, erected at a cost of five million dollars, and equipped in the most complete and up-to-date manner.
Commonwealth Avenue, which runs parallel with Boylston Street, is one of the finest residence streets in America, with rows of trees and handsome houses. It is two hundred and forty feet wide and adorned with statues.
Beacon Street, beginning on Beacon Hill, skirting the north side of the Common, and then running parallel with Commonwealth Avenue is the aristocratic street of Boston. Its back-windows command a fine view of the Charles River.
The Back Bay, the fashionable west end district traversed by the above-named streets, was at the beginning of the nineteenth century occupied by dreary mud-flats, salt-marshes and water.
The Back Bay Fens have been skillfully laid out on the site of unsightly swamps and form the first link in the splendid chain of parks and boulevards, of which Franklin Park is the chief ornament. The chief entrances to the Fens are marked by a gateway and a fountain; and at the end of Boylston Street is a fine memorial of John Boyle O’Reilly, by D. C. French.
Fenway Court, the residence of Mrs. John L. Gardner, a building in a Venetian style, enclosing a courtyard and incorporating many original balconies, windows, and other details brought from Italy, contains a choice collection of art, which is open to the public from time to time.