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Bowdoin Square (established 1788) in Boston, Massachusetts was located in the West End. In the 18th and 19th centuries it featured residential houses, leafy trees, a church, hotel, theatre and other buildings. Among the notables who have lived in the square: physician Thomas Bulfinch; merchant Kirk Boott;^[1]^[2] and mayor Theodore Lyman.^[3] The urban renewal project in the West End in the 1950s removed Green Street and Chardon Street, which formerly ran into the square, and renamed some existing streets; it is now a traffic intersection at Cambridge Street, Bowdoin Street, and New Chardon Street.^[4]^[5]

Bowdoin Square is served by the MBTA Blue Line station Bowdoin.

Brief history

Some of the features of Bowdoin Square in its heyday included:

Kirk Boott house (built 1804). "The half-acre lot on which Boott build his brick house was then a pasture in Boston's West End, an area that was just beginning to be developed. Boott's 3-story Federal mansion, with its tall Palladian windows lighting the staircase overlooking the garden, was very likely designed by Charles Bulfinch."^[6]
Samuel Parkman house (built c. 1816). "The large granite double house which stood for years at the western end of Bowdoin Square was built about 1816 by Hon. Samuel Parkman, a rich merchant. He was father of Dr.George Parkman who was murdered in 1849 by John White Webster ... [and] grandfather of Francis Parkman, the historian."^[7]
Baptist Tabernacle (built 1840); also known as the Bowdoin-Square Church or the Bowdoin Square Baptist Church^[8]^[9]^[10]
Revere House hotel (1847–1912)^[9]
United States Court House (19th century)^[11]
Bowdoin Square Hotel^[12]
Bowdoin Square Theatre^[13]^[12]

Images

House built by Thomas Bulfinch II, after 1722. His grandson Charles Bulfinch was born here^[14]
Kirk Boott house, built 1804
Samuel Parkman house, built c. 1816
Daniel Webster, 1850 ("A great crowd had collected ... and on his appearance in a barouche, he was enthusiastically cheered."^[15]
Bowdoin Square Baptist Church, built 1840^[16]
Railroad Jubilee, 1854
U.S. Court House, Bowdoin Square, c. 1856; engraving by Samuel Smith Kilburn, Ballou's Pictorial
Detail of 1883 map of Boston, showing Bowdoin Square at intersection of Green, Chardon, Court, Bowdoin and Cambridge Streets
1883
Intersection of Cambridge, New Chardon and Bowdoin Streets, Boston, 2010

References

^ Boston Directory. 1807.
^ Daily Atlas (Boston), April 2, 1844.
^ Boston Directory. 1823
^ Massachusetts Centinel; Date: 07-02-1788
^ Boston Street Laying-Out Dept. A record of the streets, alleys, places, etc. in the city of Boston]. Boston: City Printing Dept., 1910.
^ Alan Emmet (1997). "Radishes and orchids: the Boott's garden in Boston". So Fine a Prospect: Historic New England Gardens. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
^ State Street Trust Company. Forty of Boston's Historic Houses. 1912.
^ Robert Woodward Cushman. Bowdoin Square Church Book: comprising a brief history of the formation and organizations of the church : a list of its members : its articles of faith, covenant, etc. Boston: Samuel N. Dickinson, 1843
^ ^a ^b King's hand-book of Boston. 1889. Includes illustration of the church.
^ "Parson Downs squelched, The Boston Baptists drop the Bowdoin-Square Church." New York Times, Sep 16, 1886. p.1.
^ Boston Directory. 1856.
^ ^a ^b "Boston hotel on fire; The Bowdoin Square House Damaged and Two inmates Injured." New York Times, Feb 28, 1902. p.6.
^ "A Boston Theatre Sold: The Bowdoin Square Bid Off, After Many Adjournments, for $96,000." New York Times, Aug 8, 1893. p.1.
^ Life and Letters of Charles Bulfinch, Architect. 1896.
^ New Hampshire Sentinel; Date: 05-02-1850
^ Homans. Sketches of Boston, Past and Present. 1851.