Primary Sources

Bainbridge Bunting. The Plan of the Back Bay Area in Boston. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 13.2, 1954. This section of the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians contains information about the plan and the layout of filling in Boston's Back Bay. The passage contains many different visuals; ranging from maps of the city of Boston all the way to photos of the area. Baxton, Charles. Archive.org. Boston and the Back Bay. http://archive.org/stream/bostonbackbay00baxt#page/n3/mode/2up. This source has been useful because it is a primary source account of the filling in of the Back Bay. It offers insights to things such as the Mill Dam, how land was acquired, and what Boston was like prior to the landfill. Domosh, M. Controlling Urban Form: The Development of Boston's Back Bay. Journal of Historical Geography 18.3, 1992. Planned for and controlled by Boston's elite in the mid-nineteenth century, Boston's Back Bay still retains a sense of its former grandeur as an upper-class enclave. The historical geography of the area reveals the overtly symbolic nature of both its overall plan and architectural design. A critical reading of the planning and design process suggests that in its final form, the Back Bay represents both the success of Boston's elite class as a manipulator of the urban land market, and the eventual failure of that class to maintain control over the city. King, Moses. The Back-Bay District and the Vendome. [Boston]: 1880. This book is considered a primary source because it was published in 1880, which is the year that construction just about ended on the Back Bay project. It talks about the making of the back bay from plans to cost. Plan of lands on the Back Bay belonging to the Boston Water Power Co., the Commonwealth and other parties [sic.], showing the system of streets, grades and sewers as laid out and recommended by the Back Bay Commissioners http://maps.bpl.org/id/12676 This is a primary source because it is a map of land distribution, streets, and sewers proposed by the commissioners of the Back Bay project in 1864.

Secondary Sources
Clarke, Theodore G. 6. Milling and Filling: The Back Bay. Beacon Hill, Back Bay, and the Building of Boston's Golden Age. Charleston, SC: History, 2010. Venture back to the Boston of the 1800s, when Back Bay was just a wide expanse of

water to the west of the Shawmut Peninsula and merchants peddled their wares to sailors along the docks. Witness the beginning of the American Industrial Revolution, learn how a series of cultural movements made Boston the focal point of abolitionism in America, with leaders like William Lloyd Garrison, and see the golden age of the arts ushered in with notables Longfellow, Holmes, Copley, Sargent and Isabella Stewart Gardner. Travel with local historian Ted Clarke down the cobbled streets of Boston to discover its history in the golden age. Houses of Boston's Back Bay by Bainbridge Bunting Review by: Edgar Packard Dean The New England Quarterly , Vol. 41, No. 1 Mar., 1968. This article is important because it describes the houses that were built onto the filled in land in Bostons back bay. It offers a few interesting aspects. Firstly, it talks about how people wanted the back bay to be more spacious most of Boston. Thus 43% of the filled in land was given to streets and parks, to help make it feel more open. 8% was given to museums, schools, and churches while the other 49% of land was residential. This article also offers insight into how the filling in of the back bay was payed for. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians , Vol. 13, No. 2 May, 1954. http://www.jstor.org/stable/987686 - The Plan of the Back Bay in Boston This is important because it stresses how it played a significant role in city planning in 19th century America. It also talks about the building regulations during the form of the back bay, the goals Boston had for the filling in, and also how the Back Bay was prior to the filling in. It was filled in to be made into a civic and cultural center. Another reason why this article is useful is that it includes diagrams depicting the plan the construction crew had for filling it in. Marchione, William P. "Building the Mill Dam." Brighton-Allston Historical Society. http://www.bahistory.org/HistoryMillDam.html. This document acurately depicts the engineering and the construction of the Boston and Roxbury Mill Dam in Boston's Back Bay between the years of 1818 to 1821. Martin, Justin. "A Body of Water so Foul." Boston Globe (Boston, MA), May 29, 2011, Ideas. http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2011/05/29/a_century_ago_an_enviro nmental_idea_was_hatched_in_the_center_of_boston/?page=full. This article describes the many different efforts by the leaders of the Back Bay Landfill Project to clean up the Back Bay Fens and help fix the environment of the Boston area. Newman, William A., and Wilfred E. Holton. Boston's Back Bay: The Story of America's Greatest Nineteenth-century Landfill Project. Boston: Northeastern UP, 2006. This book focuses on filling the Back Bay's largest section, the Receiving Basin. By the

1850s, pollution of the former tidal marsh and severe overcrowding in Boston inspired plans to fill the Receiving Basin. Work on the landfill began in earnest in 1858 and was completed around 1890--and remains the largest residential and commercial landfill project ever carried out in the United States. Opening with a look at the geological history of the Back Bay and its life as a tidal marsh, this fascinating narrative examines the roles of planners, politicians, engineers, and contractors who made it possible to dump millions of tons of sand and gravel into the marsh. Innovative new technologies were needed to excavate, move, and grade the heavy loads, and to construct substantial buildings on very soft ground. Newman and Holton tap into a wide variety of primary sources including rare maps and plans, photography collections, corporate and railroad archives, political documents, deeds, mortgages, and bankruptcy records, all of which underscore the significance of the Back Bay landfill as a central component of Boston's development from a small town to a major metropolis in the nineteenth century. Sammarco, Anthony Mitchell. Boston's Back Bay. Dover, NH: Arcadia, 1997. One of the largest development projects in nineteenth-century America, Boston's Back Bay was essentially a tidal basin until the construction of the Mill Dam (present-day Beacon Street) just after the War of 1812. By 1837, the area bounded by Charles, Boylston, Beacon, and Arlington Streets was filled in and laid out as the Public Garden, later the site of Boston's famous swanboats. In the late 1850s, the massive infill of the Back Bay commenced, and the earth collected from the hills of Needham was deposited in the city's "west end" for nearly four decades. As the new land began to reach Muddy River, the streets assumed a grid-like plan. The grand avenues eventually comprised Victorian Boston's premier neighborhood, and became home to the most impressive religious, educational, and residential architecture in New England. Dvorak, John E. "The Hub's Hemp History." Hempology.org: The Study of Hemp. http://hempology.org/ JD'S%20ARTICLES/BOSTHIST.html. This is important because it helps to explain about how important the making of rope was in Boston at this time as well as explain why Boston was forced to expand. "Dredging." Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dredger. This helps us in our research because it gives an idea about what dredging is and how it is used.