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NEWMAN, WILLIAM A. & HOLTON, WILFRED E. ListingsIf you cannot find what you want on this page, then please use our search feature to search all our listings. Click on Title to view full description
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NEWMAN, WILLIAM A. & HOLTON, WILFRED E. Boston's Back Bay: The Story Of America's Greatest Nineteenth-century Landfill Project.
Northeastern University Press, Boston: 2006. 1555536808 / 9781555536800 s Softcover. Brand new book.
A fascinating look at the people, politics, and technology behind the massive landfill project that filled Boston's Back Bay. Boston's Back Bay neighborhood is well known today for its upscale residences, high-rise office buildings, fine hotels, and excellent restaurants. Extending from Arlington Street to Massachusetts Avenue, and from the Charles River to the Amtrak and MBTA tracks, the neighborhood includes Commonwealth Avenue, Newbury Street, Boylston Street, the John Hancock and Prudential towers, Copley Square, and the Charles River Esplanade. The Back Bay today contributes heavily to Boston's image as a prosperous, modern city with a rich historical legacy. Before 1820, however, this region was a tidal marsh that appeared to early settlers as a large bay behind the town when it filled with high-tide water twice each day. Only one road, now Washington Street, extended across a narrow peninsula and connected Boston to the mainland. In the early nineteenth century, Boston expanded by filling in some shallow areas around the edge of the Back Bay. Two dams, constructed to generate power using the tides, cut off the area from the Charles River, dividing it into two basins: the "Full Basin" and the "Receiving Basin." This book focuses on filling the Back Bay's largest section, the Receiving Basin. By the 1850s, pollution of the former tidal marsh and severe overcrowding in Boston inspired plans to fill the Receiving Basin. Work on the landfill began in earnest in 1858 and was completed around 1890Ñand remains the largest residential and commercial landfill project ever carried out in the United States. Opening with a look at the geological history of the Back Bay and its life as a tidal marsh, this fascinating narrative examines the roles of planners, politicians, engineers, and contractors who made it possible to dump millions of tons of sand and gravel into the marsh. Innovative new technologies were needed to excavate, move, and grade the heavy loads, and to construct substantial buildings on very soft ground. Newman and Holton tap into a wide variety of primary sources including rare maps and plans, photography collections, corporate and railroad archives, political documents, deeds, mortgages, and bankruptcy records, all of which underscore the significance of the Back Bay landfill as a central component of Boston's development from a small town to a major metropolis in the nineteenth century. The Table of Contents of this book is as follows: Preface ¥ Prehistory of the Back Bay ¥ Why Fill the Back Bay? ¥ Planning and Financing the Back Bay Landfill ¥ Locomotives and Steam Shovels ¥ Gravel Trains and Bold Entrepreneurs ¥ A Shocking Development Fails to Derail the Project ¥ Environmental Problems and Zoning ¥ Epilogue ¥ Notes ¥ Index. Selected for Choice Magazine's annual Outstanding Academic Title list which appeared in the January 2007 issue. William A. Newman is Professor Emeritus, Department of Geology, Northeastern University. Wilfred E. Holton is Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Northeastern University. "This book will interest anyone curious about the project itself, the use of the technology involved or the social and political aspects of such a project."ÑColebrook Chronicle (New Hampshire)
Price:
19.95 USD
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NEWMAN, WILLIAM A. & HOLTON, WILFRED E. Boston's Back Bay: The Story Of America's Greatest Nineteenth-century Landfill Project.
Northeastern University Press, Boston: 2007. 1555536514 / 9781555536510 h Hardcover with dustjacket. Brand new book.
A fascinating look at the people, politics, and technology behind the massive landfill project that filled Boston's Back Bay. Boston's Back Bay neighborhood is well known today for its upscale residences, high-rise office buildings, fine hotels, and excellent restaurants. Extending from Arlington Street to Massachusetts Avenue, and from the Charles River to the Amtrak and MBTA tracks, the neighborhood includes Commonwealth Avenue, Newbury Street, Boylston Street, the John Hancock and Prudential towers, Copley Square, and the Charles River Esplanade. The Back Bay today contributes heavily to Boston's image as a prosperous, modern city with a rich historical legacy. Before 1820, however, this region was a tidal marsh that appeared to early settlers as a large bay behind the town when it filled with high-tide water twice each day. Only one road, now Washington Street, extended across a narrow peninsula and connected Boston to the mainland. In the early nineteenth century, Boston expanded by filling in some shallow areas around the edge of the Back Bay. Two dams, constructed to generate power using the tides, cut off the area from the Charles River, dividing it into two basins: the "Full Basin" and the "Receiving Basin." This book focuses on filling the Back Bay's largest section, the Receiving Basin. By the 1850s, pollution of the former tidal marsh and severe overcrowding in Boston inspired plans to fill the Receiving Basin. Work on the landfill began in earnest in 1858 and was completed around 1890Ñand remains the largest residential and commercial landfill project ever carried out in the United States. Opening with a look at the geological history of the Back Bay and its life as a tidal marsh, this fascinating narrative examines the roles of planners, politicians, engineers, and contractors who made it possible to dump millions of tons of sand and gravel into the marsh. Innovative new technologies were needed to excavate, move, and grade the heavy loads, and to construct substantial buildings on very soft ground. Newman and Holton tap into a wide variety of primary sources including rare maps and plans, photography collections, corporate and railroad archives, political documents, deeds, mortgages, and bankruptcy records, all of which underscore the significance of the Back Bay landfill as a central component of Boston's development from a small town to a major metropolis in the nineteenth century. The Table of Contents of this book is as follows: Preface ¥ Prehistory of the Back Bay ¥ Why Fill the Back Bay? ¥ Planning and Financing the Back Bay Landfill ¥ Locomotives and Steam Shovels ¥ Gravel Trains and Bold Entrepreneurs ¥ A Shocking Development Fails to Derail the Project ¥ Environmental Problems and Zoning ¥ Epilogue ¥ Notes ¥ Index. Selected for Choice Magazine's annual Outstanding Academic Title list which appeared in the January 2007 issue. William A. Newman is Professor Emeritus, Department of Geology, Northeastern University. Wilfred E. Holton is Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Northeastern University. "This book will interest anyone curious about the project itself, the use of the technology involved or the social and political aspects of such a project."ÑColebrook Chronicle (New Hampshire)
Price:
40.00 USD
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