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"In this remarkable book, Goodman tells the story of Boston's garden squares and offers readers a fascinating glimpse of early urban planning, touching on the evolution and preservation of the garden squares of the South End of Boston . . . [A] beautifully illustrated story of urban communal gardens." —New England Antiques Journal
Beautifully illustrated history of a previously undocumented feature of Boston’s urban landscape.
Of the many types of historic landscapes that have become treasured open spaces in North America’s dense urban fabric, the garden (or residential) square largely has been overlooked. Yet the garden square played an important role in the planning of Philadelphia, Savannah, Boston, and New York, several of America’s major early cities. Boston’s garden squares most closely resemble the squares of London in purpose and appearance. Intended as speculative real estate ventures, the London garden squares were distinguished by row houses and ornamental iron fences enclosing gardens planted with trees and grass. The gardens served as welcome patches of greenery for affluent residents who chose to live in relatively cramped quarters within the city. As such, gardens were the raison d’être for this early form of urban design.
Although garden squares pre-date well-documented municipal parks, the historical significance of these squares is not fully understood. In this remarkable book, Goodman tells the story of Boston’s garden squares and offers her readers a fascinating glimpse of early urban planning. Goodman traces Charles Bulfinch’s connection with these historic landscapes and compares them to their London prototypes. While Bostonians and others are familiar with Boston’s iconic Louisburg Square on Beacon Hill, few people know that Boston’s South End neighborhood boasts a group of eight garden squares.
After discussing London squares and their effect on urban planning in several eastern seaboard cities, Goodman turns to Boston’s three privately developed garden squares, all of which were located close to the original center of the city. She pays special attention to Louisburg Square, the only one that has survived. Focusing on the characteristic landscape features that define the gardens, Goodman also showcases the five of the eight publicly developed garden squares of the South End—Blackstone Square, Franklin Square, Chester Square, Union Park, and Worcester Square.
Concluding with a chapter on the evolution and preservation of the garden squares of the South End, Goodman discusses private versus public ownership and access, maintenance, and preservation treatments—issues that provide practical information helpful in the management of historical as well as contemporary landscapes. She urges a combined effort of neighborhood groups and the public sector to maintain these squares. Otherwise, she warns, "the future of these historic garden squares will be in jeopardy."
“The idea of creating slivers of residential green spaces, often ornamented with elegant iron fences and fountains, was imported from London by celebrated Boston architect Charles Bullfinch. The purpose was to enhance the views and value of abutting townhouses, rather than encourage actual usage. Goodman, a Boston landscape preservation consultant and former director of the Friends of Copley Square, details the history and evolution of five of the eight publicly developed garden squares of the South End, plus now-paved-over gardens such as Bullfinch's Franklin Place, and the great iconic survivor, Louisburg Square. Built in 1826, Louisburg Square is now one of only two private London-style garden squares in the United States, the other being New York City's Gramercy Park.” —Carol Stocker, Boston Globe
“[A] successful effort that illuminates much about larger topics while addressing a seemingly narrow one… the book provides a wealth of information… the illustrations are outstanding and useful and the argument persuasive. Goodman's book will encourage readers to discover, or newly appreciate, these charming garden squares.”—The New England Quarterly
“Goodman contributes to our understanding of the development of Boston in the nineteenth century. Her thorough discussion of the South End squares clearly demonstrates that the gardens were planned and planted long before any houses were built or lots sold. She convinces us that these gardens were meant to be signifiers of urban refinement, independent of the architecture that would soon enclosed them and evocative of fashionable possibilities. In the early 1850s, the South End was to be imagined as a new neighborhood, complete with gated parks surrounded by modern townhouses in the latest style. By building squares surrounded by empty lots, Boston rejected an imaginary landscape of gentility in a rapidly changing city. Goodman's research points the way to a fuller understanding of the role of the landscaped square in this important period of Boston's development.”—Winterthur Portfolio
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PHEBE S. GOODMAN is a landscape designer with a special interest in urban parks. For many years she was executive director of the Friends of Copley Square, which works in partnership with the Boston Parks and Recreation Department to maintain Copley Square. She also has served as a landscape preservation consultant for the Chester Square Neighborhood Association in Boston’s South End.
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