South End, Boston
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South End District
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| Location | Boston, Massachusetts |
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| Built | 1728 |
| Architect | Multiple |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival, Late Victorian, Italianate |
| NRHP Reference # | 73000324 |
| Added to NRHP | May 8, 1973 |
The South End is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is bordered by Back Bay, Chinatown, and Roxbury. It is distinguished from other neighborhoods by its Victorian style houses and the many parks in and around the area. The South End is the largest intact Victorian row house district in the country, which is made up of over 300 acres. Eleven residential parks are scattered around the South End. In 1973, the South End was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The construction of the South End began in 1849 when the neighborhood was built on tidal marshes.
It is home to many diverse groups, including immigrants, young families, and professionals, and it is very popular with the gay and lesbian community of Boston. Since the 1880s the South End has been characterized by its diversity, with substantial Irish, Lebanese, Jewish, African-American, and Greek populations. In 2010, the population was 55.2% white, 13.3% Hispanic, 12.5% Black or African American, 16.2% Asian, and 2.7% other; 55.2% of its residents had a bachelor's degree or higher; the median household income was $57,699; the median age was 36; 65.6% were primarily English speakers; and 12.9% were primarily Spanish speakers.
The South End has five primary and secondary schools that offer education from kindergarten to grade 12. It has a diverse selection of restaurants, bars, art galleries, and boutiques, as well as banks and ATMs. It is conveniently located within the radius of three libraries which offer many different programs for children and adults.
The South End lies south of the Back Bay, northwest of South Boston, northeast of Roxbury, north of Dorchester, and southwest of Bay Village. Despite the name, it is not directly south of the center of downtown Boston.
The neighborhood is built upon a former tidal marsh, a part of a larger project of the filling of Boston's Back Bay (north and west of Washington Street) and South Bay (south and east of Washington Street), from the 1830s to the 1870s. Fill was brought in by trains from large trenches of gravel excavated in Needham, Massachusetts. The South End was filled and developed before Back Bay, which was mostly built after the American Civil War. Nineteenth-century technology did not allow for driving steel piles into bedrock, and instead a system of submerged timbers provided an understructure for most South End buildings. Recent decreases in underground water levels have caused damage to some wood pilings by exposing them to air. A series of monitoring wells have been drilled and the water level is now checked by the Boston Groundwater Trust, and can be adjusted by the introduction of water.
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