Commonwealth Avenue (colloquially referred to as Comm Ave) is a major street in the cities of

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

and Newton,

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. It begins at the western edge of the Boston Public Garden, and continues west through the neighborhoods of the

Back Bay Back Bay is an officially recognized Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, built on Land reclamation, reclaimed land in the Charles River basin. Construction began in 1859, as the demand for luxury housing exceeded the ...

, Kenmore Square,

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

, Allston,

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

and Chestnut Hill. It continues as part of Route 30 through Newton until it crosses the

Charles River The Charles River (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ), sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles, is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Hopkinton to Boston along a highly me ...

at the border of the town of

Weston Weston may refer to: Places Australia * Weston, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Weston, New South Wales * Weston Creek, a residential district of Canberra * Weston Park, Canberra, a park Canada * Weston, Nova Scotia * W ...

Description

Often compared to Georges-Eugène Haussmann's Paris boulevards, Commonwealth Avenue in Back Bay is a

parkway A parkway is a landscaped thoroughfare. The term is particularly used for a roadway in a park or connecting to a park from which trucks and other heavy vehicles are excluded. Over the years, many different types of roads have been labeled p ...

divided at center by a wide grassy mall. This greenway, called Commonwealth Avenue Mall, is punctuated with statuary and memorials, and forms the narrowest "link" in the Emerald Necklace. It connects the Public Garden to

the Fens The Fens or Fenlands in eastern England are a naturally marshy region supporting a rich ecology and numerous species. Most of the fens were drained centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by a system o ...

. Where Commonwealth Avenue reaches Kenmore Square, the MBTA Green Line B branch rises above ground and dominates the center of the roadway through the campus of

and the neighborhoods of Allston and

. After leaving Boston and entering Chestnut Hill in Newton, the avenue passes by

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...

and the terminus of the MBTA Green Line B Branch. The trolley in the median is replaced by grass as the scenery becomes noticeably more suburban and residential, and the Commonwealth Avenue Historic District begins. As the road continues out of Chestnut Hill and into Newton Centre, Comm Ave is still made up of two roadways separated by a grassy median lined with trees. The south side of the roadway contains the main, two-lane east-west roadway, with a one-way, westbound "carriage road" providing local access on the north side of the median. The section of Comm Ave from Chestnut Hill Ave in Brighton to Route 16 in Newton is along the Boston Marathon route, and is known to be especially hilly, containing the three “Newton hills”. The carriage road continues into West Newton, and the road passes over the Massachusetts Turnpike in the Auburndale section of Newton. The avenue ends as it leaves Newton, crosses the

and interchanges with Route 128. The linear stretch of Commonwealth Avenue between Kenmore Square and Packard's Corner (where Brighton Avenue maintains a straight continuum and Commonwealth Avenue splits off) contains much of Boston University's campus. BU owns much of the property along and around this part of Commonwealth Avenue. This 1.5-mile stretch is the most central route to commuting around Boston University's main campus, also known as the Charles River Campus, and is frequented by pedestrians, bicycles, and other means of transportation. Walking from one end (Kenmore Square) to the other end (Packard's Corner) or vice versa takes about 25–35 minutes.

History

The Commonwealth Avenue Mall was designed by Arthur Delevan Gilman.

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, Social criticism, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the U ...

designed the Newton portion of Commonwealth Avenue and included the parkway as part of the Emerald Necklace park system. The first statue on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall was erected in 1865 at Arlington Street. The Newton end of the roadway was constructed in 1895 with a line of the Middlesex and Boston Street Railway in the median. In 1923, the stretch of Commonwealth Avenue between Warren Street and Sutherland Road became the first street paved with concrete in Boston.

Streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...

service was cut back to its present terminus at the Boston border in 1930 and

buses A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

last ran on Commonwealth Avenue in 1976. An

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, and events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often fea ...

and ballroom known as Norumbega Park was built at the end of the line on the Charles River in 1897 to increase streetcar patronage. The eastern half of the Newton section of the road is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

as the Commonwealth Avenue Historic District. The mall that includes the landscape features, monuments, street furniture and fences that are bounded by Kenmore Street, Arlington Street and Commonwealth Avenue was designated as a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission in 1978. The addition of protected bike lanes between the BU Bridge and Packards Corner in 2020 resulted in a tripling of bikeshare usage along that segment.

Statuary

Starting at the Public Garden and going westward, the following statues can be seen on the mall: *

Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 dur ...

, co-author of ''

The Federalist Papers ''The Federalist Papers'' is a collection of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the collective pseudonym "Publius" to promote the ratification of the Constitution of the United States. The ...

'', sculpted by William Rimmer. The first statue placed on the mall. 1865. * Statue of John Glover, (depicts John Glover, Revolutionary War soldier), sculpted by Martin Milmore. 1875. * Bust of Patrick Collins, depicts Patrick Andrew Collins, the former mayor of Boston; sculpted by Henry Hudson Kitson and Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson. Moved in 1966 from its original siting at Charlesgate due to construction of the Bowker Overpass. * The Vendome Memorial, which honors nine firefighters killed in the 1972 Hotel Vendome fire, sculpted by Theodore Clausen with landscape architect Peter White. 1997. *

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was an Abolitionism in the United States, American abolitionist, journalist, and reformism (historical), social reformer. He is best known for his widely read anti-slavery newspaper ''The ...

, abolitionist and journalist, sculpted by Owen Levi Warner. *

Samuel Eliot Morison Samuel Eliot Morison (July 9, 1887 – May 15, 1976) was an American historian noted for his works of maritime history and American history that were both authoritative and popular. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1912, and tau ...

, naval historian and writer, sculpted by Penelope Jencks. 1982. * The Boston Women's Memorial, with statues of Abigail Adams,

Lucy Stone Lucy Stone (August 13, 1818 – October 18, 1893) was an American orator, Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist and Suffrage, suffragist who was a vocal advocate for and organizer of promoting Women's rights, rights for women. In 1847, ...

, and Phillis Wheatley, sculpted by Meredith Bergmann. 2003. * Domingo Sarmiento, former president of

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, sculpted by Yvette Compagnion. 1973. A gift of the Argentine government in 1913, the statue arrived in Boston sixty years later. *

Leif Ericson Leif Erikson, also known as Leif the Lucky (), was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to set foot on continental America, approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus. According to the sagas of I ...

, first European discoverer of

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

, sculpted by Anne Whitney. 1887. Commissioned by

Eben Norton Horsford Eben Norton Horsford (July 27, 1818 – January 1, 1893) was an American scientist who taught agricultural chemistry in the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard from 1847 to 1863. Later he was known for his reformulation of baking powder, his i ...

, the inventor of baking powder, this statue was originally sited at the Massachusetts Avenue end of this block, but was moved to Charlesgate in 1917. Whitney also created a monument to Leif situated on the shores of Lake Michigan in Milwaukee. Image:Hamilton statue, Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg, Hamilton Statue, 19th century Image:Morison-statue.jpg, Statue of

on the mall, 2006 Image:Commonwealth Ave October 2006.jpg, The Commonwealth Avenue Mall looking west towards the

statue, 2006

Gallery

File:CommonwealthAve KingsBoston1881.png, c. 1881 File:CommonwealthAve Boston Bacon 1886.png, c. 1886 File:2350760077 Vendome Boston.jpg, Vendome, 19th century File:1901 CommonwealthAve ClarendonSt Boston.png, 1901 File:Comm Ave at South Street in Brighton at night.jpg, Overview of Commonwealth Ave., Brighton, 2007 File:Boston at sunset.jpg, Overview, near Kenmore Square, 2007 File:Commonwealth Avenue at Mass Pike tilt-shift, November 2009.jpg, Comm. Ave, near Boston University, 2009 File:2010 CommonwealthAve Boston 4588722811.jpg, Near Massachusetts Avenue, 2010 File:USA-Boston-Commonwealth Avenue Mall5.jpg, Commonwealth Avenue Mall with statue of William Lloyd Garrison, 2013 File:1991-BOS-Commonwealth Avenue3.jpg, Magnolias, Commonwealth Avenue, 2013 File:1982-BOS-2.JPG, Brownstones

References

External links