Tremont Street is a major thoroughfare in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

. Tremont Street begins at Government Center in Boston's city center as a continuation of Cambridge Street, and forms the eastern edge of

Boston Common The Boston Common (also known as the Common) is a public park in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest city park in the United States. Boston Common consists of of land bounded by Tremont Street (139 Tremont St.), Park Street, Beac ...

. Continuing in a roughly southwesterly direction, it passes through Boston's Theater District, crosses the

Massachusetts Turnpike The Massachusetts Turnpike (colloquially "Mass Pike" or "the Pike") is a toll highway in the US state of Massachusetts that is maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). The turnpike begins at the New York state li ...

, and becomes a broad

boulevard A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America, any urban highway. Boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former city walls. In American usage, boulevards may ...

in the South End neighborhood. It then turns to the west as a narrower four-lane street, running through Mission Hill and terminating at

Brigham Circle Brigham Circle is located at the intersection of Tremont Street and Huntington Avenue in the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The commercial center of Mission Hill, it forms the southern tip of the Longwood Medical Area. The ...

, where it intersects Huntington Avenue. The street name zigzags across several physical roads, often requiring a sharp turn to remain on the street, as a result of changes made to the street grid during

urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

Etymology

The name is a variation of one of the original appellations of the city, "Trimountaine", a reference to a hill that formerly had three peaks.

Beacon Hill Beacon Hill may refer to: Places Canada * Beacon Hill, Ottawa, Ontario, a neighbourhood * Beacon Hill Park, a park in Victoria, British Columbia * Beacon Hill, Saskatchewan * Beacon Hill, Montreal, a neighbourhood in Beaconsfield, Quebec United ...

, with its single peak, is all that remains of the Trimountain. Much of the Trimountain was removed, and the earth used as fill to expand the

Shawmut Peninsula Shawmut Peninsula is the promontory of land on which Boston, Massachusetts was built. The peninsula, originally a mere in area,Miller, Bradford A., "Digging up Boston: The Big Dig Builds on Centuries of Geological Engineering", GeoTimes, Oct ...

. The two smaller peaks, Cotton Hill (or Pemberton Hill, at what is now Pemberton Square) and Mt. Whoredom (or Mt. Vernon, formerly at the location of the modern-day

Louisburg Square Louisburg Square is a street in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, bisected by a small private park. The park is maintained by the Louisburg Square Proprietors. While the Proprietors pay taxes to the City of Boston, the city ...

) no longer exist. The central peak, Sentry Hill, now called Beacon Hill, is smaller than the original peak, which reached approximately to the height of the top of the State House. A British military map of Boston from 1775, prepared by a Lieut. Sir

Thomas Hyde Page Sir Thomas Hyde Page, FRS (1746–1821) was a decorated British military engineer and cartographer for the British crown. In 1777 he married Susanna, widow of Edmund Bastard of Kitley, Devon, and sister of Sir Thomas Crawley-Boevey, baronet. ...

of His Majesty's Corps of Engineers, shows Beacon Hill, Mount Whoredom, and another unnamed hill all just above Beacon Street. There is a small street on the northeast corner of

called "Treamount Street" from School Street to Hanover Street, the precursor of modern Tremont Street, running north from what was then called Common Street (modern Tremont Street alongside the eastern border of Boston Common). Page, Sir Thomas Hyde, "A plan of the town of Boston with the intrenchments &ca. of His Majesty's forces in 1775, from the observations of Lieut. Page of His Majesty's Corps of Engineers, and from those of other gentlemen." Source: Library of Congress

Points of interest

Sites of interest along Tremont Street, from northeast to southwest, include: * Government Center *

King's Chapel King's Chapel is an American independent Christian unitarian congregation affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association that is "unitarian Christian in theology, Anglican in worship, and congregational in governance." It is housed i ...

Tremont Temple The Tremont Temple on 88 Tremont Street is a Baptist church in Boston, affiliated with the American Baptist Churches, USA. The existing multi-storey, Renaissance Revival structure was designed by architect Clarence Blackall of Boston, and opene ...

Granary Burying Ground The Granary Burying Ground in Massachusetts is the city of Boston's third-oldest cemetery, founded in 1660 and located on Tremont Street. It is the final resting place for many notable Revolutionary War-era patriots, including Paul Revere, th ...

Suffolk University Law School Suffolk University Law School (also known as Suffolk Law School) is the private, non-sectarian law school of Suffolk University located in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, across the street from the Boston Common and the Freedom Trail, two blocks ...

* Park Street Church *

Emerson College Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...

* Masonic Grand Lodge *

Boston Theater District The Boston Theater District is the center of Boston's theater scene. Many of its theaters are on Washington Street, Tremont Street, Boylston Street, and Huntington Avenue. History Plays were banned in Boston by the Puritans until 1792. Bos ...

Wang Center for the Performing Arts The Boch Center (formerly Citi Performing Arts Center and Wang Center for the Performing Arts) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit performing arts organization located in Boston, Massachusetts. It manages the historic Wang and Shubert theatres on Tremont S ...

* Boston Center for the Arts *

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica The Basilica and Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is a Roman Catholic basilica in the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, sometimes known as "The Mission Church". The Redemptorists of the Baltimore Province have ministered t ...

Transportation

The Tremont Street subway runs underneath the street. Opened in 1897, it was the first subway tunnel in North America and still carries the

MBTA Green Line The Green Line is a light rail system run by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) in the Boston, Massachusetts, metropolitan area. It is the oldest MBTA subway line, and with tunnel sections dating from 1897, the oldest subway ...

. The Green Line stops in three places under Tremont Street: * Government Center * Park Street *

Boylston Boylston may refer to the following communities: ;Canada * Boylston, Nova Scotia ;United States * Boylston, Massachusetts * Boylston, New York * Boylston, Wisconsin * Boylston Junction, Wisconsin It may also refer to: * Helen Dore Boylston, au ...

Gallery

1722 ParkSt TremontSt BeaconSt Boston.png, Intersection of Tremont and

School Street School Street is a short but significant street in the center of Boston, Massachusetts. It is so named for being the site of the first public school in the United States (the Boston Latin School, since relocated). The school operated at various ...

(

at upper left), 1722 Boston, 1775bsmall1.png, 1775 map 1798 TremontSt Boston byARobertson SimonsUPNE.png, Tremont St., 1798 FaneuilMansion Boston byEdwinWhitefield 1889.png, Faneuil mansion, c. 19th century TremontSt ca1843 Boston byPhilipHarry MFABoston.png, Tremont St., c. 1843, by Philip Harry GleasonsHall 18oct1851.JPG, Gleason's Publishing Hall, corner of Tremont and Bromfield St., 1851 Brewster NaturalHistoryStore TremontSt BostonDirectory 1861.png, Advertisement for Chas. E. Brewster's Natural History Store, 1861 Horticultural and studio buildings, Tremont St., Boston, Mass, by Soule, John P., 1827-1904 4.jpg, Horticultural Hall, 19th century, photo by

John P. Soule John Payson Soule (1828–1904) was a photographer and publisher in Boston, Massachusetts, and Seattle, Washington. Biography He was born in Phillips, Maine on October 19, 1828. His younger brother, William Stinson Soule, also became a photogr ...

1891 TremontSt Boston.png, Tremont St., 1891 1896 TremontSt PleasantSt ShawmutAve Boston.png, Intersection of Tremont St., Pleasant St., and Shawmut Ave., 1896

References

Notes Further reading *
Views of Tremont Street, Boston
Bulletin of the Boston Public Library, 1894. * City of Boston
Landmarks CommissionConnolly's Bar Study Report
1997

External links

"Tremont Street in the Rain, Boston, Massachusetts, undated"
''Historic New England''. Photographer: Unknown * https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2007661063 * https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2007661071
Flickr
Photo of elevated railroad on Tremont St. at Granary, c. early 20th century. Includes view of Horticultural Hall. Courtesy of Bostonian Society. {{Authority control Streets in Boston