Photographs and text help chronicle the evolution and development of the streets of Boston.

With a foreword by Robert Campbell.

South Boston, once a part of Dorchester, was annexed to the city of Boston in 1804. Previously known as a tight-knit community of Polish, Lithuanian, and Irish Americans, South Boston has seen tremendous growth and unprecedented change in the last decade.

Nearly everywhere you look in Boston, you'll discover fascinating old-meets-new juxtapositions--some of the greatest landmarks of American history sit side-by-side with icons of modern American life. Discover America's oldest major city, its legendary locations, colorful neighborhoods, and thriving history in this newly updated second edition. Specially commissioned contemporary photographs, including some previously unpublished images, are paired with archival images of the same locations for a unique tour of Boston over the centuries. Examine amazing then-and-now photographs of the Old North Church, where two lanterns were seen blazing from the steeple on April 18, 1775, essentially signaling the start of the American Revolution. Planning a tea party? There's no better place to make arrangements than at the Old South Meeting House--this stately old building gained notoriety as the planning venue for the Boston Tea Party of 1773. Fenway Park--home of the Red Sox--is a historic monument unto itself. See America's oldest operating baseball stadium back in its heyday, and how Boston's beloved anachronism looks today having survived many attempts to build a new Fenway Park. Tour the Paul Revere house, still standing at 19 North Square, and check out the Bunker Hill monument and U.S.S. Constitution, "Old Ironsides," berthed in Boston Harbor.

Once referred to as the "Suburb Superb," Roslindale was at one time part of the town of West Roxbury, which had been set off from Roxbury in 1851. The rapid development of Roslindale, which was annexed to the city of Boston in 1874 and was then known as the South Street District, was largely due to the Boston and Providence Railroad and the streetcars that connected the area to Forest Hills Station. By the twentieth century, Roslindale had developed as a distinctive neighborhood that attracted residents of all walks of life, with dells and valleys reminiscent of Roslin, Scotland, from which it received its name. Roslindale chronicles the growth of this neighborhood from the birth of photography through today by combining vintage images with modern photographs of Roslindale Square, Washington Street, and noteworthy buildings and businesses.

A lively history of Boston’s emergence as a world-class city—home to the likes of Frederick Douglass and Alexander Graham Bell—by a beloved Bostonian historian “It’s been quite a while since I’ve read anything—fiction or nonfiction—so enthralling.”—Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River and Shutter Island Once upon a time, “Boston Town” was an insulated New England township. But the community was destined for greatness. Between 1850 and 1900, Boston underwent a stunning metamorphosis to emerge as one of the world’s great metropolises—one that achieved national and international prominence in politics, medicine, education, science, social activism, literature, commerce, and transportation. Long before the frustrations of our modern era, in which the notion of accomplishing great things often appears overwhelming or even impossible, Boston distinguished itself in the last half of the nineteenth century by proving it could tackle and overcome the most arduous of challenges and obstacles with repeated—and often resounding—success, becoming a city of vision and daring. In A City So Grand, Stephen Puleo chronicles this remarkable period in Boston’s history, in his trademark page-turning style. Our journey begins with the ferocity of the abolitionist movement of the 1850s and ends with the glorious opening of America’s first subway station, in 1897. In between we witness the thirty-five-year engineering and city-planning feat of the Back Bay project, Boston’s explosion in size through immigration and annexation, the devastating Great Fire of 1872 and subsequent rebuilding of downtown, and Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone utterance in 1876 from his lab at Exeter Place. These lively stories and many more paint an extraordinary portrait of a half century of progress, leadership, and influence that turned a New England town into a world-class city, giving us the Boston we know today.