Mount Bowdoin
Mount Bowdoin is a hillside neighborhood in Dorchester that was developed in the late 1800s on the estate of James Bowdoin. Bowdoin was a former Revolutionary War hero who later served as the Governor of Massachusetts as well as amateur scientist who collaborated with Benjamin Franklin on publishing his experiments with electricity. The master planner of the neighborhood, Cornelius Coolidge, was best known for his design of tony Louisberg Square in Beacon Hill. The area offers panoramic views of the Boston Harbor as well as the Blue Hills and houses a cluster of Greek Revival, Italianate and Mansard cottages dating from the mid-1800s. Larger Queen Anne residences built in the 1880s and 1890s are still very much in evidence. Mount Bowdoin also includes the Four Corners commercial district located at the intersection of Bowdoin, Harvard, and Washington Streets.
The neighborhood’s boundaries include Washington, Bowdoin, and Eldon Streets as well as Geneva Avenue. Mount Bowdoin is situated west of the center of Dorchester. To the north is Upham’s Corner; to the south are Codman Square and Fields Corner while to the east is Meeting House Hill and the Boston neighborhood of Roxbury to the west.