With Boston and its immediate vicinity, moreover, are associated the names which stand for the most important contribution of the 19th century to American literature. Prescott, Tick nor, Bancroft, Motley and Parkman; Emerson, Hawthorne, Lowell, Longfellow, Holmes and Whittier,— these and their associates, bound together with many ties of sympathy and friend ship, constituted a group of writers which gave the place a unique distinction in letters. The Atlantic Monthly, founded in 1857, became the vehicle for much of their most characteristic utterances. The influences of Transcendental ism (largely a local movement, culminating in the forties), of anti-.slavery feeling, of creative expression, combined to give to this utterance as a whole something of the distinction which the individual writers won each for himself.
During the 19th century two important changes in the Boston landscape affected the future of the city, in the regions both of resi dence and of business. The first of these was the filling in of the Back Bay, an arm of the Charles River which spread between the Com mon and the hills of Brookline, running south and east as far as the Neck or narrow strip of land connecting Boston and Roxbury. From the early years of the century changes in the shore line of Boston had been wrought by cut ting down the principal hills and filling out the irregularities of the harbor front. The first step in the series of events which led to the conversion of the Back Bay from water into land was the granting of a charter in 1814 to the Roxbury Mill Corporation, permitting the building of dams across the Back Bay and confining its water for mill purposes. To these rights the Boston Water Power Company suc ceeded in 1832. At about the same time the Boston & Providence and Boston & Worces ter railroads invaded the Back Bay with their bridges. Moreover the waters became unsani tary through lack of drainage, and to solve the problem, hygienic and legal, a State commission was appointed and made a full report in 1852. Its recommendations to create the whole tract of land now known as the Back Bay did not at once satisfy the various conflicting interests, but in 1858 the actual work of filling up the waters was begun. The result was a large en richment of the State treasury, and the addition to the city of the whole district occupied by the residences, clubs, churches, hotels and other institutions connected with the most prosperous life of the city. The original peninsula of Bos ton contained 783 acres. Through its encroach ments upon water, largely in the Back Bay, it has grown to 1,829 acres. With the accessions
of outlying districts, the total area of the city is now 29,158 acres.
The second great change in the outward as pect of Boston resulted from the great fire of 9 and 10 Nov. 1872. From the beginning of its history Boston had been afflicted by serious fires. This greatest of them all destroyed 776 buildings, all but 67 of which were of brick and stone. It devastated Summer street (both sides), Washington street from Summer to Milk, Milk street to thepost office, Devonshire street., Water (both sides), Congress, Lindall and Oliver streets to the harbor. From the corner of Washington and Franklin streets the shipping at the wharves was in clear view. Nearly 2,000,000 feet of land were burned over. The total loss was estimated at more than $75,000,000. Yet by private enterprise and State the recovery was immediate. The oppor tunity to widen and straighten streets in the business district was seized. Statelier buildings rose in the place of those destroyed, and a new business region, corresponding to the new dis trict of residences, was created.
The Metropolitan He who would understand modern Boston must dis tinguish the city proper from the metropolitan district of which it is the centre. Where the Charles, Mystic and Chelsea rivers meet and flow into Boston Harbor, nature, materially aided by mart, has formed three converging points of land. The northeastern, practically an island, is occupied by East Boston; the tip of the western is the Charlestown district; and the southern, out of which rises Beacon Hill, is the real heart, the business and administrative centre of Boston. South and west of this cen tre lie the South Boston, Roxbury and Dor chester districts. Inland on the southern bank of the Charles, and cut off from Boston by Cambridge on one side and the town of Brook line on the other, lies the Brighton district. These districts form the present city, a com munity whose population in 1915, according to the decennial State census, was 745,439, and whose total land area is 29,158 acres.
But this city, both in area and in population, is only part of the New England metropolis. The cities of Somerville and Cambridge reach almost to the centre of Boston; the independent town of Brookline is almost wholly within the city. The State enumeration made in 1915 put the population of the cities and towns lying within 10 miles of Boston at 942,480, giving the metropolitan district, as defined in the Federal census of 1910. a population of 1,687,919. In deed, the State's centre of population lies with in the metropolitan district.