Kenmore Square and the Fenway of Boston Through Time

Anthony Sammarco, with contemporary photographs by Peter B. Kingman, discusses Kenmore Square with the Hotel Buckminster, built in 1897 facing the prominent square, along with ease of transportation which led to early residential hotels such as the Charlesview, the Wadsworth and the Westgate to be built along with large hotels such as the Hotel Kenmore and the Hotel Braemore. With apartment buildings constructed between 1900 and 1930, the Back Bay Fens evolved into the Fenway neighborhood, with not just accessibility to the city but also with a far more park-like and naturalistic aspect than any other city neighborhood. With numerous institutions from the Museum of Fine Arts and the Boston Opera House to the Harvard Medical School and numerous hospitals, Kenmore Square is dominated by the iconic Citgo sign and is not just home to baseball's beloved Fenway Park, which draws huge crowds for Red Sox games, but also many restaurants, shops and student hangouts which have long been in and around Kenmore Square, and clubs and sports bars along Brookline Avenue and Lansdowne Street.