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A lesser known Boston nickname is The Athens of America,
used mainly in literary circles during the first half of the 20th Century.
The origin is believed to be in a letter by William Tudor (1819)
describing the town: "[Boston] is perhaps the most perfect and
certainly the best-regulated democracy that ever existed. There is something
so impossible in the immortal fame of Athens, that the very name makes everything modern shrink from comparison; but since the days
of that glorious city I know of none that has approached so near in some
points, distant as it may still be from that illustrious model."
On the western slope of Beacon Hill, at Louisburg Square, is
a statue of Ancient Greek general and statesman Aristides the Just
(530?-468 BC). Aristides led the army in a great victory over the Persians
at the Battle of Plataea (479). In 478, he was a prominent leader in the
formation of the confederacy of Greek city-states known as the Delian
League. The Aristides statue was a significant symbol of the Athens
of America alias, and of 1850s Brahmin culture
[an obscure modern source quotes Samuel Adams as referring to Boston as
Sparta City in the 1700s.]
Louisburg Square is owned collectively by a group of wealthy Boston residents. Joseph Iasigi, of Greek
descent and one of the owners of the square in 1852, received approval
and installed the statue of Aristides. The square also hosts a statue of
Christopher Columbus, installed about the same time, located at
the opposite end as Aristides. In
the early 1900s, a club of engineering and tech students resided at a
building in the square, and Aristides became known as
"Uncle Louisburg" or just "Uncle Louie" by the younger
generations.
Many of the quaint row houses and streets on Beacon Hill
resemble parts of old London. This was of course, by design. According to
the book Some Statues of Boston (1946), by State Street
Trust Company, a former resident recalled that the Edison Company had at one
time taken photographs of Louisburg Square, and thus avoided the
need to travel to London to take photographs.
Louisburg Square, Beacon Hill
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