The Leather District: Small Neighborhood, Big Personality

The name itself tells the story of this ascendant neighborhood’s past: Once the center of leather manufacturing in Boston, it has found a new life as one of the city’s hippest and most desired neighborhoods. Factories and warehouses converted to loft space are the norm in this barely nine-square-block nook of the city, which borders Chinatown to its south and the Financial District to its north. The recently completed Rose Kennedy Greenway puts one of the nation’s most interesting and innovative urban parks at the doorstep of a neighborhood some compare to New York City’s Greenwich Village at its peak: a unique urban refuge of fascinating shops like the one-of-a-kind Hank Lee’s Magic Factory, diverse restaurants like jazz spot Les Zygomates, and distinctive living space.