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Fenway

Built up from swamplands of Back Bay Fens, Fenway is now unrecognizable from its swamp days. Boston Red Sox fans crowd to Fenway Park for games, art and garden lovers stroll through the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and school children still attend the U.S.’s oldest school.

History

Swamp and landfill have transformed into one of Boston’s liveliest neighborhoods, where museums lie alongside universities and the Boston Red Sox’s iconic Fenway Park. As Boston grew in the 1880s, debris was dumped into Back Bay Fens—where Muddy River and the Stony Brook meet the large Charles River—to create a new neighborhood of working-class families. Museums, universities, and parks soon filled the streets, vacating smaller premises in the downtown to build more expansive institutions.

Major Attractions:

On the banks of the Charles River, Fenway-Kenmore is a neighborhood of museums, gardens, and, most prominently, baseball. Since 1912 the Boston Red Sox have played at Fenway Park, a stadium affectionately called the Green Monster. The Sox have won multiple World Series at the park, including the 2004 win that ended 86 years without a title and the legendary Curse of the Bambino—which blamed the sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees for the lack of titles won by the Red Sox and the triumphant results of the rival New York Yankees.

Even the arts world in Fenway has strong ties to the Red Sox. The courtyard garden and galleries at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum are housed in the one-time heritage home of Isabella Stewart Gardner—an avid Red Sox fan. Visitors can also walk through the galleries at the Museum of Fine Arts to see a variety of classical and contemporary works.

The prestigious Boston Latin School is the oldest public school in the U.S. and moved to its Fenway address, 78 Avenue Louis Pasteur, in 1922. Other fine heritage buildings, close to the eastern boundary of the neighborhood, include Symphony Hall, Horticulture Hall, and the Mary Baker Eddy Library.

Parks in Fenway include 113-acre Back Bay Fens Park. The Muddy River ambles through the park, past Fenway Victory Gardens and the Kellecher Rose Garden. Frederick Law Olmsted designed the park to solve issues of pollution and stagnant water. Back Bay Fens Park is one in a string of parks called the Emerald Necklace, which also includes the Boston Commons, the Public Garden, and the designer’s namesake Olmsted Park.

The iconic CITGO sign hums above Kenmore Square. The original sign was put in place in 1940, with a redesigned sign created in 1965.

Annually the Boston Marathon cuts through the Fenway, with a stretch along Boylston Street featuring in the course. Spectators gather along this Fenway road to watch elite runners in the last leg of the marathon.

Getting There

Main arteries in Fenway-Kenmore include Huntington Avenue, the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90), and riverside Storrow Drive. The Fenway is a mostly one-way, ambling street that trims Back Bay Fens Park.

The main subway stop for Boston Red Sox fans is the Kenmore Square T-station, where the B, C, and D branches of the Green Line stop. The D branch also stops at Fenway station.

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Fenway