Back Bay is famous for its rows of Victorian brownstone homes, which are considered one of the best-preserved examples of 19th-century urban design in the United States, as well as numerous architecturally significant individual buildings and important cultural institutions such as the Boston Public Library. It is also a fashionable shopping destination, and home to some of Boston’s tallest office buildings, the Hynes Convention Center, and numerous major hotels.

Prior to a monumental 19th-century filling project, the Back Bay was an actual bay. Today, along with neighboring Beacon Hill, it is one of Boston’s two most expensive residential neighborhoods.

The Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay considers the neighborhood’s bounds to be “Charles River on the North; Arlington Street to Park Square on the East; Columbus Avenue to the New York New Haven and Hartford right-of-way (South of Stuart Street and Copley Place), Huntington Avenue, Dalton Street, and the Massachusetts Turnpike on the South; Charlesgate East on the West