Shopping in Newbury Street

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Newbury Street: a Pleasurable Present with a Prodigious Past

Those that stay at Newbury Guest House get the pleasure of opening our front door onto historic Newbury Street. Nowadays, it’s known as the shopping hub of Boston. But a peek into Newbury Street’s past reveals some fascinating surprises… and submersion.

 

Before we get to the submersion part, the biggest surprise might be that Newbury Street used to be, well, somewhere else. The original Newbury Street - which the Puritans named for their 1643 victory in The Battle of Newbury during the English Civil War - was in downtown Boston. That Newbury Street - one of Boston’s first roads - was re-christened Washington Street by 1900. Paving the way (get it?) for the Newbury Street we know today to emerge from the deep. Literally.

 

Yes, the “new” Newbury Street is a much drier place these days than it used to be. In fact, until 1857, the entire Back Bay was part of Boston Harbor. Newbury Street, being under water, had a different breed of tourists back then. Or, rather, species: fish, ducks, geese, and clams, to name a few. Eventually the land was filled in, and by 1882, the neighborhood as we define it today had solidified.

 

Soon after becoming terra firma, Newbury, like any proper street, needed a building. That first building was Emmanuel Church. Erected in 1860, the house of worship still stands today at 15 Newbury Street and remains an inspirational sanctuary for Episcopalians across the diocese. The church features The Leslie Lindsey Memorial Chapel - an architectural highlight of Boston and a must-see. Another bit of trivia: the church’s mental health outreach program in the early 1900s - known as the Emmanuel Movement - was a main influence in the development of self-help groups. Talk about staying power.

 

Speaking of power, Newbury Street had the power of prestige by the turn of the 20th Century. Even Beacon Hill was eclipsed by Newbury Street as the “it” place to live in Beantown. The 1880’s and 90’s saw an infusion of new structures and houses with elegant European design and style. The homes themselves were also larger than in many other parts of the city. They included unique amenities such as, yes, indoor plumbing. (Thankfully the rest of Boston eventually caught up to Newbury Street, plumbing-wise.)

 

That’s not the only thing that made Newbury Street seem smart. From 1865 to 1916, MIT - as in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - called Newbury home. Two substantially sized academic buildings housed some of the world’s brightest minds. Eventually, however, MIT packed its bags and set up shop in Cambridge, while its erstwhile campus on Newbury was demolished. Hey, at least the professors still shop here.


It was around 1905 that the first commercial enterprises opened on Newbury Street. One of the first Brooks Brothers stores is still there in fact, off the corner of Berkeley Street. This retail evolution, along with the emergence of Boston’s Junior League (one of the first women’s service organizations, devoted to the betterment of communities) in 1907, and with it social events such as formal dances, turned the street into an elegant destination for the well-heeled. There was even a salon offering lessons in etiquette for those wanting to move upward in high society.  

 

The 1920s was a booming time in America, and for Newbury Street. By the late part of the decade, Newbury was filled with the wealthy elite. This continued upper crust migration brought with it retailer after retailer - many displaying its pricy wares behind large glass windows to attract the monied eye.

 

It wasn’t until the 1970s, and the addition of beloved Newbury Comics to the shopping scene, that a younger crowd joined Newbury’s milieu. From then until the late-nineties, tony, emergent art galleries opened all around lower Newbury Street. Hipsters and boho artsy types would browse the galleries and discuss big, conceptual ideas at the ubiquitous “wine-and-cheese” gatherings.

 

One of the more recent architectural transformations on the street involved the historic E. U Wurlitzer musical instrument shop, which originally opened its doors back in 1890. The shop moved from LaGrange Street to Newbury Street in the 1960s and remained there until it went out of business in the middle of the 1980s. In 1989, the plain-Jane building that housed the shop was redesigned by none other than Frank Gehry, the legendary architect. Its new Deconstruction style was lauded and given the prestigious Parker Award for its experimental, adventurous aesthetic that added a fresh visual layer to Newbury Street.

 

Some other noteworthy architecture on the street and in the vicinity include the Beaux-Arts style building designed by William G. Preston at 234 Berkeley Street (right off the corner of Newbury Street), which is now a flagship store for Restoration Hardware; the Boston Architectural College at 320 Newbury Street, a Brutalist structure that houses the United States’ oldest and largest school of spatial design; and a Romanesque Revival building on the corner of Exeter and Newbury conceived by Boston architects Hartwell and Richardson, which became a movie theater bearing a unique, Tudor-like ambiance that was distinctly un-movie-theater-like.  

 

Newbury’s Street’s trendiness and destination consumerism remains to this day. It’s mile-long span starts off ritzy and then, as we get towards Massachusetts Avenue, the more bohemian side of the street emerges. It has become a home for not only high-end permanent retailers - such as Tiffany & Co., Muji, Cartier, Valentino, and Uniqlo - but also a strip for pop-ups of all kinds from a wide variety of noteworthy individuals and purveyors.   

 

Staying at Newbury Guest House is an experience you don’t want to miss out on. Because Newbury Street is an experience in itself - especially during summer Sundays when it’s closed to vehicle traffic. As you amble down Newbury admiring the brownstones and the shops, the local chatter and the visitors from all over, ending up at the Boston Public Garden culminating this street, just know that under your feet lay the impressions of an intriguing history. And in front of your eyes is a present-day thoroughfare that is always evolving and always edifying.