Louisburg Square: Brahmin Elegance and Literary Legends

Why is it significant?

Step into the dignified quiet of Louisburg Square and rest your hands on the decorative black iron fence surrounding this central oval park. You are standing inside the pinnacle of Boston Brahmin elegance.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Step into the dignified quiet of Louisburg Square and rest your hands on the decorative black iron fence surrounding this central oval park. You are standing inside the pinnacle of Boston Brahmin elegance. The cobblestone perimeter and central lawn are private property, owned and maintained exclusively by the twenty-two townhouse proprietors since eighteen forty-four.

Look at the distinctive bowfront facades of the brick townhouses curving gracefully along both sides of the square. Notice the faint purple hue in several of the window panes. That soft lavender tint was actually an accidental chemical reaction: glass shipped from England between eighteen eighteen and eighteen twenty-four contained traces of manganese oxide, which oxidized and turned violet after decades of exposure to New England sunlight. Today, Bostonians prize these lavender windows as an undeniable badge of authentic pedigree.

Look across to number ten. That four-story townhouse was the final residence of beloved author Louisa May Alcott, creator of Little Women. William Dean Howells, editor of The Atlantic Monthly, lived at number four, while John Kerry and Teresa Heinz reside at number nineteen.

Two small marble statues of Christopher Columbus and Greek statesman Aristides keep watch inside the garden, shipped home by an eccentric Greek merchant in eighteen fifty. Walk slowly down toward Charles Street.