Commonwealth Avenue Mall

The Commonwealth Avenue Mall stretches as a wide, tree-lined promenade straight through the center of the Back Bay neighborhood. It was designed in the eighteen seventies by Arthur Gilman as a Parisian-style boulevard to anchor the newly filled Back Bay land. A massive bronze statue of Alexander Hamilton stands near the entrance, marking the start of a series of monuments that populate the park. Residents once petitioned the city to remove the trees, claiming they blocked the breeze, but the oaks and elms remain.