Back Bay Walking Tour: A Self-Guided Boston Route Through Copley Square, Commonwealth Ave and Beacon Street

"The Boston Public Library was founded in 1848 and is generally described as the first large free municipal library in the United States. The Copley Square building opened in 1895 and was designed by Charles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead & White, who modeled the facade on Italian Renaissance palazzi. Inside, the grand staircase is lined with murals by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, and Bates Hall, the main reading room, has a barrel-vaulted ceiling. The bronze entrance doors are by sculptor Daniel Chester French."

Entry is free. Walk through the entrance hall and up the marble staircase, then continue into the arcaded courtyard at the center of the building, which is a quiet place to sit even on a busy day. Bates Hall is a working reading room, so keep your voice down and skip flash photography. Free guided tours run on a set schedule that changes by season, so check the library's site before you go.

"Trinity Church, at 206 Clarendon Street, was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson and consecrated in 1877. It established the Romanesque style that came to be called Richardsonian Romanesque. Because the site was filled tidal land, the building rests on thousands of wooden piles driven into the fill, and the groundwater level around it still has to be monitored to keep those piles wet. The interior murals and decorative scheme were directed by John La Farge. Across the street, the John Hancock Tower (1976, designed by Henry N. Cobb of I. M. Pei & Partners) mirrors the church in its glass walls."

Stand on the Copley Square plaza side, near the fountain, and look at the church and the tower reflection together; that view is free and arguably better than going in. The interior charges admission for visitors, and it is closed to tourists during services, so check hours for the day. Do pay if the interior matters to you: the La Farge color is the main event.

"Old South Church, at 645 Boylston Street, was designed by Cummings and Sears in a Northern Italian Gothic style, with a tall tower and bands of contrasting stone. The congregation itself dates to 1669 and moved to Back Bay from its earlier meetinghouse downtown, which still stands as the Old South Meeting House on Washington Street. The Back Bay building was completed in the mid-1870s, which makes it a neighbor and near-contemporary of Trinity."

The best spot is the corner of Dartmouth and Boylston, where you can see the tower and the polychrome stonework against Trinity's heavier mass. Do not confuse this with the Old South Meeting House downtown, which is a separate building and a separate museum. The sanctuary is open at limited times, so treat this as an exterior stop unless the doors happen to be open.

"Commonwealth Avenue was laid out by architect Arthur Gilman as the grand axis of the new Back Bay, with a central tree-lined mall that echoes the Parisian boulevards of the Haussmann era. Filling of the bay began in 1857 and the neighborhood's blocks were built out over the following decades. Along the mall you pass sculptures including the granite statue of Alexander Hamilton by William Rimmer (1865) and the Leif Erikson statue by Anne Whitney (1887). The rowhouses on both sides show the shift from the earlier French Academic styles to Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival."

Enter the mall at Dartmouth Street and walk east toward the Public Garden, reading the statue plaques as you go. Look up at the rooflines: mansard roofs mark the earlier French-influenced houses, and the rounded bays and heavy stonework mark the later ones. Most of the grand houses are now condos, offices or university buildings, so this is an exterior stop. If you want shops on the way, Newbury Street runs parallel one block south and has the stores, though the architecture is better on Commonwealth.

"The Gibson House, at 137 Beacon Street, was built in 1860 to a design by Edward Clarke Cabot for Catherine Hammond Gibson. It stayed in the Gibson family for three generations, and the last occupant, Charles Gibson Jr., lived there until his death in 1954. The house opened as a museum in 1957 with its furnishings and household arrangements largely intact, which makes it one of the few places where you can see how a Back Bay family actually lived, including the service spaces where servants worked."

Entry is by guided tour only, and there is an admission fee. Tours run on a limited weekly schedule, so check dates and book ahead before planning your route around it. If tour times do not fit, the exterior still gives you a good look at an early Back Bay brownstone front. Skip it if you are short on time, because it adds close to an hour.

"Arlington Street Church, at 351 Boylston Street across from the Public Garden, was designed by Arthur Gilman and Gridley J. F. Bryant and completed around 1861. It was the first public building constructed in Back Bay. The steeple is modeled on London's St Martin-in-the-Fields, and the church is known for its Tiffany stained-glass windows. The congregation is Unitarian Universalist and has a long record of taking public positions on social issues."

Stand across Arlington Street near the Public Garden gate to take in the whole front and steeple. The sanctuary is open at limited hours, so call or check the church's schedule if you want to see the windows. This is also the point to look back along Boylston Street and see how quickly the neighborhood's scale changes from here toward Copley.

"Parish Cafe, at 361 Boylston Street, sits directly beside Arlington Street Church on one of Back Bay's oldest commercial strips. Boylston Street's low rowhouse-scale buildings here were converted to shops and restaurants over time, and the cafe operates in one of those ground-floor spaces. It is known locally for a menu of sandwiches attributed to Boston-area chefs, and for its bar."

Go for a late lunch to avoid the noon rush and the weekend line. Expect a casual, sit-down meal with a sandwich-forward menu, and check current hours before you commit, since restaurant schedules change. If it is packed, there are plenty of alternatives within a short walk along Boylston and on Newbury Street.