Back Bay: A Living Portrait

In its prime, Boston's Back Bay was known around the world for its Gilded Age mansions and impeccable social credentials. A century later it was a neighborhood under seige, threatened with high-rise development and institutional takeovers. Today it is again admired, not only as a proud survivor but as an elegant, livable inner city neighborhood, a tribute to its architectural adaptability and to the spirit of the residents who continue to protect it.

In this richly illustrated book, the authors recount the fascinating saga of this man-made piece of real estate, tracing its development from desolate swampland to the seat of High Victorial respectability. This history is illustrated with more than fifty historical maps and photographs, many never published before.

Next is a tour of the modern neighborhood illustrated with color photographs, a street-by-street survey of many of the district's most intriguing places. Finally, the authors step inside some forty Back Bay houses, ranging from snug single-family dwellings to once-opulent mansions now converted to condominiums or adapted to condominiums or adapted for instututional use.

With 300 illustrations, including 245 color photographs