Part of today’s Back Bay is annexed by Boston.

The area was originally made up of a small part of Roxbury and a large tidal bay confined by construction of a dam in 1821. The bay is subsequently filled by the town, state, and private owners, resulting kin a large area of made land that is developed into elite residential neighborhood that also contains new building constructed by public and private institutions. Lewis Mumford subsequently declares, “[It was] in the Back Bay that Boston first established itself as one of the centers of world culture in the arts and sciences.” After the neighborhood becomes somewhat run-down after World War II, it is renewed through preservation efforts beginning in the 1950s and 1960s.