Tremont Street

Route map: Bing / Google

Tremont Street with view of Park St. Church (1915)

Tremont Street is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts.

Tremont Street begins at Government Center in Boston's city center as a continuation of Cambridge Street, and forms the eastern edge of Boston Common. Continuing in a roughly southwesterly direction, it passes through Boston's Theater District, crosses the Massachusetts Turnpike, and becomes a broad boulevard in the South End neighborhood. It then turns to the west as a narrower four-lane street, running through Mission Hill and terminating at Brigham Circle, where it intersects Huntington Avenue. The street name zigzags across several physical roads, often requiring a sharp turn to remain on the street.

Etymology

The name is a variation of one of the original appellations of the city, "Trimountaine", a reference to a hill that formerly had three peaks. Beacon Hill, with its single peak, is all that remains of the Trimountain. Much of the Trimountain was removed, and the earth used as fill to expand the Shawmut Peninsula. The two smaller peaks, Cotton Hill (or Pemberton Hill, at what is now Pemberton Square) and Mt. Whoredom (or Mt. Vernon, formerly at the location of the modern-day Louisburg Square) no longer exist.^[1] The central peak, Sentry Hill, now called Beacon Hill, is smaller than the original peak, which reached approximately to the height of the top of the State House.

A British military map of Boston from 1775, prepared by a Lieut. Sir Thomas Hyde Page of His Majesty's Corps of Engineers, shows Beacon Hill, Mount Whoredom, and another unnamed hill all just above Beacon Street. There is a small street on the northeast corner of Boston Common called "Treamount Street" from School Street to Hanover Street, the precursor of modern Tremont Street, running north from what was then called Common Street (modern Tremont Street alongside the eastern border of Boston Common).^[2]

Points of interest

Tremont Street in front of King's Chapel

Sites of interest along Tremont Street, from northeast to southwest, include:

Transportation

The Tremont Street Subway runs underneath the street. Opened in 1897, it was the first subway tunnel in North America and still carries the MBTA Green Line.

The Green Line stops in three places under Tremont Street:

Gallery

Intersection of Tremont and School Street (Boston Common at upper left), 1722
1775 map
Tremont St., 1798
Faneuil mansion, c. 19th century
Tremont St., c. 1843, by Philip Harry
Gleason's Publishing Hall, corner of Tremont and Bromfield St., 1851
Advertisement for Chas. E. Brewster's Natural History Store, 1861
Horticultural Hall, 19th century, photo by John P. Soule
Tremont St., 1891
Intersection of Tremont St., Pleasant St., and Shawmut Ave., 1896

References

Notes

↑ "MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Boston" (PDF). Massachusetts Historical Commission. January 1981. Retrieved August 23, 2009.
↑ Page, Sir Thomas Hyde, "A plan of the town of Boston with the intrenchments &ca. of His Majesty's forces in 1775, from the observations of Lieut. Page of His Majesty's Corps of Engineers, and from those of other gentlemen." Source: Library of Congress

Further reading

"Tremont Street". Gleasons Pictorial (Boston, Mass.) 5. 1853.
Views of Tremont Street, Boston. Bulletin of the Boston Public Library, 1894.
City of Boston, Landmarks Commission. Connolly's Bar Study Report, 1997

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tremont Street.

"Tremont Street in the Rain, Boston, Massachusetts, undated". Historic New England. Photographer: Unknown
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2007661063
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2007661071
Flickr. Photo of elevated railroad on Tremont St. at Granary, c. early 20th century. Includes view of Horticultural Hall. Courtesy of Bostonian Society.

Streets and squares in Boston

Streets	Arborway Atlantic Avenue Beacon Street Bennington Street Blue Hills Parkway Bowdoin Street Boylston Street Brattle Street Brookline Avenue Charles Street Columbus Avenue Commonwealth Avenue Congress Street Court Street Day Boulevard Dorchester Avenue Federal Street Fenway Franklin Street Gallivan Boulevard Hanover Street Huntington Avenue Jamaicaway Massachusetts Avenue Melnea Cass Boulevard Memorial Drive Milk Street Morrissey Boulevard Morton Street New Chardon Street Newbury Street North Street Park Street Park Drive Riverway School Street Soldiers Field Road State Street Stony Brook Reservation Parkways Storrow Drive Summer Street Tremont Street Truman Parkway Union Street Veterans of Foreign Wars Parkway Washington Street West Roxbury Parkway Winter Street Yawkey Way

Squares, circles, crossings and corners	Andrew Square Blackstone Square Brigham Circle Central Square Chester Square City Square Cleveland Circle Codman Square Copley Square Day Square Dewey Square Dock Square Downtown Crossing Dudley Square Egleston Square Fields Corner Franklin Square Haymarket Square Hyde Square Jackson Square Kenmore Square Louisburg Square Maverick Square Packard's Corner Park Square Peabody Square Post Office Square Roxbury Crossing Sullivan Square Teele Square Thompson Square Union Square Uphams Corner

Italics denote streets that no longer exist. See also Neighborhoods in Boston Transportation in Boston

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, August 02, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.