Commonwealth Avenue Mall

Part of the Emerald Necklace linking the Public Garden to the Back Bay Fens, this noble linear park is flanked by giant old trees, which provide shaded sanctuary during the summer heat. This is where the posh pooches are walked, and the beautiful people who frequent Newbury Street’s boutiques traverse, shopping bags in hand. Like the Back Bay Fens, this area was part of the massive landfill project to extend Boston inland. Its monuments include the Boston Women’s Memorial, featuring Abigail Adams (the wife of the second president of the United States and mother of the sixth), poet Phyllis Wheatley (a slave brought from Africa to Boston, who was the first published African writer in America), and Lucy Stone (a staunch abolitionist and suffragist).