1990 Back Bay, Massachusetts train collision

Back Bay Station (also signed as Back Bay · South End) is an intermodal passenger station in Boston, Massachusetts. It is located just south of Copley Square in Boston's Back Bay and South End neighborhoods, it serves MBTA Commuter Rail and MBTA subway routes, and also serves as a secondary Amtrak intercity rail station for Boston. The present building, designed by Kallmann McKinnell & Wood, opened in 1987. It replaced the New Haven Railroad's older Back Bay station – which opened in 1928 as a replacement for an 1899-built station – as well as the New York Central's Huntington Avenue and Trinity Place stations which had been demolished in 1964. Although South Station is Boston's primary rail hub, Back Bay maintains high traffic levels due to its location in the Back Bay neighborhood near the Prudential Center development and its access to important Northeast Corridor services. All Amtrak Acela Express and Northeast Regional trains running to and from South Station stop at Back Bay, as does the Boston section of the Lake Shore Limited. Four MBTA Commuter Rail routes – the Providence/Stoughton Line, Franklin Line, Needham Line, and Framingham/Worcester Line – also stop at Back Bay, as do the Orange Line subway and several local MBTA bus routes. It is the third-busiest MBTA Commuter Rail station (after North Station and South Station) and the sixth-busiest MBTA subway station.

Cowles Art School (aka Cowles School of Art) was a studio building on 148 Dartmouth Street, Boston, Massachusetts, United States, that was established in 1883 and continued operation until 1900. It was one of the largest art schools in the city, having several hundred scholars. By the end of the 19th century, Boston had become an important art center. A number of highly respected artists were teaching in the city. The rich environment for art had been promoted at least in part by the Massachusetts Drawing Act of 1870. The act mandated drawing lessons in public schools. To fill the need for art teachers, Massachusetts Normal Art (MNA) was established in 1873. Two blocks behind the Museum of Fine Arts, in the New Studio Building near the Back Bay Station, was the Cowles Art School (1883). Cowles Art School offered instruction in figure drawing and painting from the flat cast and life, artistic anatomy, perspective and composition, painting still life, drawing and painting the head from life, drawing still life, oil and water colors, ad perspective.

The World's Peace Jubilee and International Musical Festival of 1872 took place in the Back Bay area of Boston, Massachusetts. Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore directed the festival, which lasted some 18 days. The jubilee honored the ending of the Franco-Prussian War.

Four buildings in Boston, Massachusetts, have been known as the "John Hancock Building". All were built by the John Hancock Insurance companies. References to the John Hancock building usually refer to the 60-story, sleek glass building on Clarendon Street also known as the John Hancock Tower or Hancock Place.

The YWCA Boston building is a historic building located at 140 Clarendon Street in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The 13-story brick-faced steel-frame building was designed by George F. Shepard and Frederic Stearns, and built in 1929. The building once housed an indoor swimming pool and recreation facilities for the YWCA Boston; it is now operated by Clarendon Residences LLC, which provides affordable and market-rate housing, the boutique hotel Hotel 140, facilities for the Lyric Stage of Boston and Snowden International High School, and corporate offices for several small and mid-sized for-profit and not-for-profit tenants. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.

101 Clarendon Street, also known as Columbus Center, was a proposed skyscraper planned for Boston, Massachusetts. If completed, it would have stood as the 25th-tallest building in Boston. Continuing on the trend established by the Prudential Tower in 1964, the completed building would have concealed more of the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90) by utilizing air rights above it. The location would have been above the turnpike, directly to the east of Back Bay station and south of Copley Square in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston. The project would have "united the city’s Back Bay and South End neighborhoods."The project was put on what was then a temporary hiatus in March 2008 with the developers citing a need for about $35 million in state funds and loans, some of which had been denied ironically because construction had stopped.In 2010, the main financial investor in Columbus Center, the California Pension and Retirement System (CalPERS), began to extricate itself from the development. Citing the economic unfeasibility of such a project and the intransigence of locals opposing the project, the $800 million complex was eventually declared defunct by CalPERS and investor Arthur Winn. Debates over the final cost of cleaning up the proposed site (estimated at $5–6 million) continue.Winn was later charged with making illegal campaign contributions totaling $61,000 over the course of eight years in an attempt to win approval and support for the Columbus Center project. He pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of donating in another person's name to U.S. Representatives Stephen Lynch and Mike Capuano.As of 2016 there are two developers in favor of reviving the project.

200 Clarendon Street, previously John Hancock Tower and colloquially known as The Hancock, is a 62-story, 790-foot (240 m) skyscraper in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston. It is the tallest building in New England. The tower was designed by Henry N. Cobb of the firm I. M. Pei & Partners and was completed in 1976.The building is widely known for its prominent structural flaws, including an analysis that the entire building could overturn under certain wind loads—as well as a prominent design failure of its signature blue windows, which allowed any of the 500-lb. window panes to detach and fall—up to the full height of the building—endangering pedestrians below. In 1977, the American Institute of Architects presented the firm with a National Honor Award for the building, and in 2011 conferred on it the Twenty-five Year Award. It has been the tallest building in Boston and New England since 1976. The street address is 200 Clarendon Street, but occupants also use "Hancock Place" as a mailing address for offices in the building. John Hancock Insurance was the primary tenant of the building at opening, but the company announced in 2004 that some offices would relocate to a new building at 601 Congress Street, in Fort Point, Boston. The tower was originally named for the insurance company that occupied it. The insurance company, in turn, was named for John Hancock, whose large and conspicuous signature on the Declaration of Independence made his name so famous in the United States that a colloquialism for a signature is "a John Hancock".

The Fairmont Copley Plaza is a Forbes four-star, AAA four-diamond hotel in downtown Boston, Massachusetts managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. It stands on Copley Square, part of an architectural ensemble that includes the John Hancock Tower, Henry Hobson Richardson's Trinity Church, and Charles Follen McKim's Boston Public Library.The Fairmont Copley Plaza is recognized as one of the Historic Hotels of America, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It is currently under consideration for local landmark status with the Boston Landmarks Commission.

Grundmann Studios (1893–1917) in Boston, Massachusetts, was a building on Clarendon Street in the Back Bay. It contained artist's workspaces and multipurpose function rooms Copley Hall and Allston Hall. Prior to 1893, it functioned as a skating rink; after the Boston Art Students' Association leased the building it was renamed in honor of local art educator Emil Otto Grundmann. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology owned the property. Tenants included the Copley Society (formerly Boston Art Students' Association); artists Henry R. Blaney, Herman Dudley Murphy, Frank Richmond, Mary Bradish Titcomb; sculptor John A. Wilson, architect Josephine Wright Chapman; and the College Club. The structure existed until 1917, when it was demolished.

The National Peace Jubilee was a celebration that commemorated the end of the American Civil War, organized by Patrick Gilmore in Boston from June 15-19, 1869. It featured an orchestra and a chorus, as well as numerous soloists. More than 11,000 performers participated, including the famous violinist Ole Bull as the orchestra's concertmaster, and Carl Zerrahn as director of the choral forces. The Jubilee became the "high-water mark in the influence of the band in American life". Along with the World's Peace Jubilee and International Musical Festival in 1872, it made Gilmore a famous composer and bandmaster. For the Jubilee, a newly commissioned "Hymn of Peace" was written by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, set to the music from "American Hymn" by Matthias Keller (1813-1875) and performed on the opening day.Participants included: 100 choral groups with a total of 10,926 singers 525 musicians with the orchestra 486 musicians with the wind band

Trinity Church in the City of Boston, located in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. The congregation, currently standing at approximately 4,000 households, was founded in 1733. Five services are offered each Sunday, and weekday services are offered three times a week from September through June. Within the spectrum of worship styles in the Anglican tradition, Trinity Church has historically been considered a Broad Church parish. In addition to worship, the parish is actively involved in service to the community, pastoral care, programs for children and teenagers, and Christian education for all ages. The church is home to several high-level choirs, including the Trinity Choir, Trinity Schola, Trinity Choristers, and Trinity Chamber Choir. The building, designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, is currently under study for becoming a Boston Landmark.

The Tortoise and the Hare is a 1994 bronze sculpture by Nancy Schön, installed in Boston's Copley Square, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The work references one of Aesop's Fables, The Tortoise and the Hare, and commemorates Boston Marathon participants.