Going to Town: Shopping in Downtown Boston November 30, 2005

In this fascinating slide lecture with historian and author Anthony Sammarco you will learn that Downtown Crossing is more than just the intersection of Washington, Summer and Winter Streets, but an area that was completely remade after the Great Boston Fire of 1872. Once known as the South End, this area was one of the premier residential neighborhoods of the city until the mid-19th century when commercial interests began encroaching, with houses being replaced with impressive commercial blocks that completely changed the scale and character of the area. However, the area bound by Summer, Washington and Milk Streets was destroyed by a conflagration that destroyed forty acres of prime real estate. From 1873 onward, under the direction of Boston city architect George A. Clough, the Downtown Crossing was built up with large department stores that catered to every taste. Jordan Marsh & Company, Filene's and Gilchrist Department Stores commanded three of the corners of Downtown Crossing and such specialty stores as Raymond's, C. Crawford Hollidge, R.H. White. R.H. Stearns, Houghton & Dutton and the Leopold Morse & Company Department Stores offered their goods in large, palatial stores to Bostonians who thronged them, and had the ultimate shopping experience.