History Lesson: Columbia Square
Charles Bulfinch, architect of many of Americs’a great historical sites, designed South End’s Columbia Square as one large park, but a city planner nixed the idea, concluding two smaller parks better served the city. How he reached this conclusion, I’ll never know, but the resulting Franklin Square and Blackstone Square mirror each other, separated by the ruinous traffic of Washington Street. By 1901, the Elevated Railway, rising thirty feet above Washington Street, further wounded the park(s) with horrendous noise and a heavy blanket of soot from each passing train.
In the 1980′s, the trains disappeared and the elevated tracks vanished, but South End’s main thoroughfare still slices this stately park into two identical pieces.
The following homes have park views and, more significantly, sit within two blocks of the sweet, yeasty cinnamon rolls offered by Flour:
411 Shawmut Avenue, #1
Beds: 1/Baths: 1.5
SQ.FT.: 1116
$/SQ.FT.: 390
$434,900
42 West Newton Street, #3-19
Beds: 1/Baths: 1
SQ.FT.: 563
$/SQ.FT.: 691
$389,000
34 East Newton Street, #5
Beds: 1/Baths: 1
SQ.FT.: 440
$/SQ.FT.: 657
$287,000
And, as a bonus, this one has a view of Cathedral housing development:
11 George Street, #15A
Beds: 2/Baths: 2
SQ.FT.: 1109
$/SQ.FT.: 585
649,000
