Louisburg Square

Louisburg Square is a private square located in Boston, Massachusetts that is maintained by the Louisburg Square Proprietors. While the Proprietors pay taxes to the City of Boston, the city does not own the square or its garden. It was named for the 1745 Battle of Louisbourg, in which Massachusetts militiamen led by William Pepperrell, who was made the first American baronet for his role, sacked the French Fortress of Louisbourg.

The square itself is a small grassy oval surrounded by a wrought-iron fence; access is generally not available. There is a statue of Columbus at the north end and of Aristides the Just at the south end.

The Greek Revival houses around the square reflect the rarefied privilege enjoyed by the 19th century upper class in Beacon Hill. One of the last private residences built on Louisburg Square was 2 Louisburg Square, built in 1847 for wealthy merchant and philanthropist Thomas Handasyd Perkins Jr., known as "Short-Arm Tom", who lived at 1 Joy Street. Among the famous people who lived there in the 19th Century were Atlantic Monthly editor William Dean Howells, architect Charles Bulfinch, painter John Singleton Copley, and teacher A. Bronson Alcott and his daughter, author Louisa May Alcott (who died there). Jenny Lind was married in the parlor of a house on Louisburg Square.

As of 2014, it is one of the most expensive residential neighborhoods in the USA; townhouses on Louisburg Square sold for $11,500,000 in 2011 and $11,000,000 in 2012, for instance. The square is often included in walking tours and guidebooks. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry owns a townhouse on Louisburg Square.