Living in Beacon Hill, Boston, MA

About Beacon Hill

Where it is

Bounded by Storrow Drive, Cambridge Street, Bowdoin Street, Park Street and Beacon Street, plus the block bounded by Beacon, Tremont and Park Streets, with the Charles River Esplanade to the west and Boston Common and the Public Garden to the south.

Beacon Hill takes its name from a signal beacon set on its summit in 1634. William Blaxton built a house and orchard on the south slope in 1625, and Beacon Street was established in 1708 from a cow path to Boston Common. Development of the hill began with Charles Bulfinch's Massachusetts State House, whose cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1795, and which was completed in January 1798. In 1795, 18 1/2 or 19 acres of grassland west of the State House were bought, most of it from John Singleton Copley, and the Mount Vernon Proprietors were formed to develop the area. Between 1807 and 1832 the hill was cut down from 138 feet to 80, and the surrounding waters were filled, creating the level Flat of the Hill west of Charles Street.

Asher Benjamin, Solomon Willard and Alexander Parris designed houses on the hill in the Federal and Greek Revival styles, and apartment buildings were added later in the 19th century. Louisburg Square, surveyed in the 1820s, is lined with Greek Revival houses built between 1834 and 1847 around a fenced oval owned and kept by the Louisburg Square Proprietors, not the city. Acorn Street, a narrow cobblestone lane, was once home to coachmen employed by households on Mount Vernon and Chestnut Streets. Charles Street, at the foot of the hill, is the neighborhood's commercial spine and gives the Red Line's Charles/MGH station its name. On the North Slope, the African Meeting House, built in 1806, and the Abiel Smith School, opened in 1835, are part of the Boston African American National Historic Site.

In 1955 the state created the Historic Beacon Hill District, the first historic district in Massachusetts, starting with the South Slope; the Flat of the Hill and the North Slope were added in 1958 and 1963, and the district was expanded again in 1975 and 2024. All exterior work visible from a public way, including views from the Common, the Public Garden, Storrow Drive, the Esplanade and the Longfellow Bridge, needs approval from the Beacon Hill Architectural Commission before work starts or materials are bought. Beacon Hill was designated a National Historic Landmark District on December 19, 1962, and listed on the National Register on October 15, 1966.

Homes in Beacon Hill

Beacon Hill's housing is Federal and Greek Revival brick row houses, apartment buildings added later in the 19th century, and former stables and carriage houses converted into lofts and studios. The Boston Planning & Development Agency's tabulation of the 2014 to 2018 American Community Survey counts 6,077 housing units, 5,325 of them occupied; 33.5% of occupied units were owner occupied and 66.5% renter occupied.