Boston Landmarks Commission

When Boston was young, after our revolutionary era, the Shawmut Peninsula looked onto a forested hillscape. Nearly everywhere in sight was Roxbury. The hills held a secluded sylvan valley nearby: Franklin Park. Then, as now, Bostonians escaped to nature there.

In 1978, Highland Park residents submitted a petition to the Boston Landmarks Commission to secure a designation for the Roxbury neighborhood as a historical district. It’s taken 44 years, but on June 19, the mayor and the Boston City Council approved the designation.