Back Bay 

Bay Bay gained its name because the area was, in fact, the "Back Bay" for Boston. In a massive project which begun in 1857, the Back Bay neighborhood was created by filling the tidewater flats of the Charles River. The filling of present-day Back Bay was completed by 1882; it reached Kenmore Square in 1890, and finished in the Fens in 1900. The project was the largest of a number of land reclamation projects, beginning in 1820, which over the course of time more than doubled the size of the original Boston peninsula. It is frequently observed that this would have been impossible under modern environmental regulations.

Back Bay's development was planned by architect Arthur Gilman with Gridley James Fox Bryant. Strict regulations produced a uniform and well-integrated architecture, consisting mostly of dignified three- and four-story residential (or once-residential) brownstones.