Brick storefronts ring Maverick Square and wood frame triple deckers climb Eagle Hill behind it, the streets the Equalizer films used twice.
What East Boston looks like
is East Boston's commercial center, a paved plaza where brick tenements with ground floor shops meet at an angle. The MBTA Blue Line's Maverick Station sits under a curved glass and granite headhouse at one edge, with streets radiating out toward the rest of the neighborhood. The , built at the square in the 1830s, faces it from its own corner.
runs the commercial spine north from the square, three and four storey brick buildings over storefronts, with the occasional wood sided front mixed in. Buses share the road with parked cars, a signal mast reaching out over the crosswalk at the corner.
The ground rises behind the square into Eagle Hill, where wood frame triple deckers and freestanding houses line streets that meet at . Bay windows and mansard towers repeat down the block, the houses mostly dating from the 1830s to 1900, their sides painted in muted colors.
Red brick institutional buildings sit among the houses, including a corner fire station with arched engine bay doors and a parish school behind a stone entrance portico. East of the square, runs along the waterfront, its railed promenade facing the downtown Boston skyline across the harbor.
Shot in East Boston
East Boston keeps drawing the Equalizer franchise back. The first film used a house on Eagle Hill, and its sequel returned to close off a street outside Maverick Square for a car chase. A separate production, Proud Mary, filmed its own shootout at the waterfront development at Portside at East Pier.
The Equalizer, 2014
The Equalizer used a house on this block of Eagle Hill as the exterior of Robert McCall's home. The block is otherwise unmarked, wood frame houses set close together on a rising street. Street View
Equalizer 2, 2018
The cast and crew shut down Orleans Street outside Maverick Square for several days to film a car chase for Equalizer 2. The closure sat one block from the square's own storefronts, inside the neighborhood's dense residential grid. Street View
Proud Mary, 2018
Proud Mary filmed a shootout scene at the Portside at East Pier development on the East Boston waterfront. Its entrance is a glass and stone doorway under the building's own sign, potted plants and wood benches set along the plaza in front. Street View
What East Boston can double for
Munjoy Hill in Portland, Maine
Munjoy Hill's own triple deckers climb the hill above Portland's harbor the way Eagle Hill's houses rise above East Boston's. The heaviest concentration is on Vesper, Morning and North Streets, wood frame houses packed onto a hillside grid a short walk from the water. Munjoy Hill's wider harbor views are the tell in a wide shot, so tighter street level frames without the horizon read closer to Eagle Hill. Try searching wood frame triple decker streets now.
Federal Hill's two and three storey tenements along Atwells Avenue match the scale of the streets rising off Maverick Square. Both neighborhoods took in a working immigrant population within a few decades of each other. Federal Hill's gateway arch and restaurant signage on Atwells Avenue need dressing to lose the neighborhood's own branding. Try searching two and three storey tenements now.
Greenpoint in Brooklyn, New York
Greenpoint's landmarked 19th century rowhouses sit close enough in scale to Eagle Hill's own mix, both a short walk from the water. The East River runs along Greenpoint the way the harbor runs along East Boston. Greenpoint's rowhouse cornices are the tell in a wide shot, and the water itself is a river rather than an open harbor. Try searching landmarked 19th century rowhouses now.
