So Where’s The Bay?

I am lucky enough to live in a section of Boston called the Back Bay.
But the only water to be found here now is the Lagoon in the Boston Public Garden.

So what gives?

The street I live on, Marlborough, contains some of the fanciest homes in the city.

Like these across the street.

But the land on which these homes were built came from elsewhere.

Beacon Hill to the east was actually lowered to provide landfill.
And Needham to the west was quarried to produce endless amounts of gravel.

Because the entire neighborhood in which I live was once under water.

Location, location, location? More like hydration, hydration, hydration!
If you had come down what is now my street in 1850, you would have needed a boat.
And my daily strolls would have been swims.

But the good citizens of Boston simply needed more room to expand their booming city.

And by filling in the salt marsh of what was once more logically termed the Back Bay (the Front Bay being the one that begins in Boston Harbor),  some of the most beautiful and famous streets in the city were created.

Beacon, Boylston, Newbury.

And the alphabetically inspired Arlington, Berkeley, Clarendon, Dartmouth, Exeter, Fairfield, Gloucester and Hereford.

(You can see why they call this place NEW England.)

When you come to visit me in my new home town (actually my old home town), just be glad you can reach my place in shoes.

And not flippers.