Fodor's Expert Review Leather District
Opposite South Station and inside the angle formed by Kneeland Street and Atlantic Avenue is a corner of Downtown that has been relatively untouched by high-rise development: the old Leather District. For those who like to get a sense of history through place, this is probably the best place in downtown Boston to get an idea of what the city's business center looked like in the late 19th century as the wholesale supply area for raw materials in the days when the shoe industry was a regional economic mainstay. Today, a few leather firms remain, but most warehouses now contain expensive loft apartments.