11.016J — The City — Kenmore Square Assignment #1

Figure 1: Street Map of Kenmore Square Site
(Source: Microsoft Expedia Streets and Trips, 2000 Edition)

I have chosen to study a six square block section of Kenmore Square in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. As highlighted in blue on the street map above, the site is bounded by Charlesgate West to the East, Commonwealth Avenue to the South, Deerfield Street to the West, and Bay State Road to the North. Beacon Street passes from the Northeast corner to the Southwest corner of the region.

I selected Kenmore Square for this project primarily because it is a hub of student activity and it is an area that I regularly visit. More importantly, I was attracted to its diversity and the unique combination of different land uses present in the site. For example, the historic brownstone buildings along Bay State Road represent residential land use. Some of these structures are single family dwellings, while the majority appears to be divided into several apartments. Along this road, there are also a number of MIT fraternities and Boston University dormitories which suggest the use of this land by academic institutions. The post office on Deerfield Street and the MBTA T subway stop signifies the public works and government agencies’ utilization of the square. The institutional use is coupled with commercial use on Commonwealth Avenue where the Boston University bookstore is located. The “boat” shaped Myles Standish Hall indicates the institutional presence at the Northeast corner of the square. Several restaurants and convenience stores, the Hotel Buckminster, and the prominent Waterman and Sons funeral home, which line the square along Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue, are evidence of commerce, which is exemplified by the gigantic, landmark Citgo advertisement. Finally, the tree-filled park located between the two sides of Commonwealth Avenue reflects that the square may also provide a place for recreation. This park, along with the other various land uses in Kenmore Square, can best be seen in the aerial view below. The individual land uses are shaded as shown in the key and the site is marked in yellow.

Figure 2: Aerial View of Kenmore Square Site
(Source: The Boston Atlas )

Kenmore Square is atypical compared to other Boston locales. Its intersections deviate from the standard city grid pattern with most of its streets joining at acute angles. Its three boat shaped buildings, Myles Standish Hall, the Waterman Funeral Home, and the Hotel Buckminster, at the corners of Beacon Street and Bay State Road, Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue, and Beacon Street and Brookline Avenue, respectively, are extremely anomalous and are reminiscent of the Flat Iron building in New York City. The intersection of three main thoroughfares at the square accompanied by the European-style façade of the Hotel Buckminster reminds me of Paris. The Citgo sign is analogous to the Eiffel tower, since both are strikingly unique components of their cities’ skylines.

Figure 3: Myles Standish Hall

Figure 4: Hotel Buckminster and Pizza UNO

Figure 5: Waterman Funeral Home

The distinctive layout of Kenmore Square and the unique amalgamation of land uses have made me increasingly curious about its development over time. The influence of Boston University in the region is obvious. Buildings owned by the university are dispersed throughout the square, although there is no discrete campus at the site. This suggests that BU has expanded considerably into Kenmore Square from the West along Commonwealth Avenue. Moreover, many of the stores in the square cater to students. The restaurants including Burrito Max, India Quality, and Ankara’s Café serve reasonably priced foods and are not overly lavish. Store 24 is open all night to accommodate those students who are awake in the late evening or early morning. As a result, I hope to utilize old maps and atlases in the future to track the expansion of Boston University in order to discover how this large and powerful institution and the students who inhabit the site have influenced the land use distribution and overall character of Kenmore Square.

I am also curious to follow the changes in ownership of the brownstone buildings along Bay State Road. It can be easily predicted that the number of single family dwellings most likely decreased as Boston grew as a “college town” since the students who inhabit the region do not need, nor can they afford, entire brownstones. It can also be suggested by observing the similar building sizes and shapes throughout the square that the amount of residential use has decreased steadily over time. Moreover, the presence of a funeral home at the heart of the Square suggests that Kenmore may very well have originally been a residential community where people were born, lived, and died.

I am also interested in the stories of specific buildings in Kenmore Square which stand out and distinguish the site, especially Myles Standish Hall, located at the corner of Beacon Street and Bay State Road. Such a distinctly shaped and ornate building was probably not always a dormitory—it appears to be more of a hotel or an apartment complex. Consequently, I am excited to study the way in which its inhabitants have changed through time and to trace the changes in its structure as it was converted to a dormitory.

Finally, transportation is clearly among the most influential forces acting on the Square. Several of Boston’s main roads including Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue pass through the site and function in funneling traffic between Boston and Brookline and between the nearby Storrow Drive and Massachusetts Turnpike. In addition, the Kenmore Square T subway stop is the last on the green line before it splits and runs above ground as a trolley. The park which divides Commonwealth Avenue into two sections suggests that this may not always have been the case and that there may have been an above ground trolley that passed through Kenmore Square at some point. The Citgo sign also indicates the importance of transportation. Perhaps there was once a Citgo gas station in Kenmore Square that no longer exists.

Kenmore Square is a lively and important neighborhood in Boston. It houses a wide array of land uses which contribute to a unique sense of place which is different from the rest of Boston. Though the styles of many of the buildings on the site closely resemble those in the adjacent Back Bay, each region is a unique place, and it will be interesting to examine why Kenmore Square developed so differently. Through old maps and photographs, coupled with my own observations, I hope to uncover the true story of Kenmore Square since the founding of Boston in the seventeenth century.