Angel

Boston’s parks are the beneficiaries of endless Victorian flourishes. This statue in the Boston Public Garden is a great example. Who would build this these days?

The land on which this statue sits was once a briny marsh (and dumping ground for littering colonials). This area was the first to be filled in with earth from the top of Beacon Hill. And thus the Back Bay was born. The buildings behind the statue are the oldest in Back Bay, as the construction followed the landfill process — the Big Dig of its day — from the park to Massachusetts Avenue.