Book excerpt: The Back Bay was one of Boston's premier residential neighborhoods between 1837 and 1901. From its quagmire beginnings and with the creation of the Boston Public Garden in the 1830s, the Back Bay was envisioned as an urbane and sophisticated streetscape of stone and brick row houses. The major center of the neighborhood became Art Square, now known as Copley Square, which was surrounded by Trinity Church, New Old South Church, Second Church of Boston, the Boston Public Library, and S.S. Pierce and Company. With images of swan boats and architectural delights, Boston's Back Bay in the Victorian Era illuminates a particularly vibrant period in this intriguing and relatively new neighborhood's past.