South End, Boston

I just love the South End. Not just because there are so many beautiful Brownstones and great restaurants, but for it's diversity. All those Yuppies would be just annoying if the lower income, minority and gay population didn't balance things out!

Visit this picturesque Victorian neighbourhood south of the Back Bay. The South End was Boston's first district built outside the 'old city' on the Shawmut Peninsula. Created by landfill on what was once the town neck, the South End quickly became the most exclusive district in Boston. Broad commercial avenues are intersected by streets broken by oval or rectangular squares in the English style. Bowfront rowhouses from the mid-19th century frame the parks and avenues. Unfortunately, in the 20th century the South End fell from favour and the area became a derelict district. Today, it has been revitalised by a new urban professional class, and prices have again skyrocketed. Unfortunately, the immigrant dwellers of the old South End have had to contend with these new prices, and have been fighting for the survival of their presence in the area. Nevertheless, one can now safely wander streets and squares lined with the largest collection of Victorian housing in the nation. Of particular interest are the new, hip restaurants now lining Tremont Street, the soaring Holy Cross Cathedral on Washington Street, and the Southwest Corridor Park, a pedestrian corridor running over former railroad tracks straight through the neighbourhood, providing a cross-section of the alleys and streets of the South End.