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Beacon Hill

Photo Credit: Greater Boston CVB

Once known for its sentry-light warning of foreign invasions, Beacon Hill is no less important today as home to Massachusetts' State House, Suffolk University, and Massachusetts General Hospital. But quaintness gives Beacon Hill its reputation. The cobblestones of Charles Street take visitors past narrow red-brick homes, small antique shops, and gourmet restaurants. Gas-lamp streetlights make for pleasant evening strolls, and a riverside walking path called the Esplanade draws runners, skaters, and bikers.

One pays for the assets with some of Boston's higher rents. Most of the 19th-century-style single-family homes have become apartments and condos. Some students and many professionals have settled here, drawn by the warm community spirit, architectural charm, skyline view, and proximity to Boston Common.

About one mile square, Beacon Hill is bounded by Cambridge Street, Somerset Street, Boston Common, Arlington Street, and the Charles River.