USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Fifty years of Boston; a memorial volume issued in commemoration of the tercentenary of 1930; 1880-1930, Pt. 2 > Part 31
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
"The Arboretum .- (Independently of its imposed features). Rocky hillsides, partly wooded with numerous great trees, and a hang- ing wood of hemlocks of great beauty. Eminences commanding distant prospects, in one direction seaward over the city, in the other across a charmning countryside to blue distant hills.
"West Roxbury Park .- Complete escape from the town. Open country. Pastoral scenery. A lovely dale gently winding between low wooded slopes, giving a broad expanse of unbroken turf, lost in the distance under scattered trees."
By this time, the proposal to include Parker Hill had been abandoned and the difficulties of jurisdiction between Boston and Brookline along Muddy river were approaching settlement. Four years later six parks had been acquired and over $4,000,000 expended for land and construction.
A landmark in the development of the park system, and indeed in the development of the art of landscape architecture, dates from this period. In his "Notes on the Plan of Franklin Park," published in 1886, Mr. Olmsted not only sets forth the purposes to be served by the different units in the West Roxbury or Franklin Park but also analyzes in some detail the park situation in Boston, the bases for a park policy, and the means of overcoming the difficul-
-
662
FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
ties inherent in the administration of park areas. Needless to say, Mr. Olmsted's plan was adopted by the commissioners and the West Roxbury Park was named for Benjamin Franklin.
Between 1885 and 1896 the number of parks and parkways had risen from six to nineteen and the cost to thirteen millions. This period of rapid develop- ment resulted in 2,162 acres of park land with 36.95 miles of road, 65 miles of walks, and the inclusion of over 126 acres of ponds and streams within the parks. The costs of lands and construction almost evenly divided the $13,000,000 expenditure. The close of this period was marked by the publi- cation of a "Boston Park Guide," prepared by Sylvester Baxter. This guide was a novelty at that time and proved of great assistance in making the features and attractions of the park system known to the citizens of Boston and to the whole United States.
As in other similar periods of creative activity, the end came with bitter and acrimonious attacks upon the park commissioners, culminating in an investigation by the Board of Aldermen in the spring of 1900. The investi- gation brought out the usual criticisms leveled at public bodies engaged in the purchase of real estate, but the Commission showed that during the four years ending in 1900 purchases had averaged only 135 per cent of the assessed value and the condemnation cases had cost 150 per cent. The net result of the investigation was a tremendous strengthening of public support both for the commissioners and for the work which was then in process under the advice of Professor Charles S. Sargent.
At that time and for many years thereafter, there were several agencies handling park areas and park activities in Boston. Agitation to have the Boston Common and other areas, then administered by a separate Public Grounds Department, placed under the single jurisdiction of the Park Commissioners filled the newspapers in 1902, but the final combination of the Public Grounds Department, recreation activities and the Departments of Music and Baths with the park office was not to take place until 1912. In 1920 the Cemetery Department was merged with the park and recreation office, and the original naine, "Park Department," was re-established for the combined service.
Prior to these changes in organization, the death of George Francis Park- man on September 16, 1908, disclosed the provisions of the will which he wrote in 1877, shortly after the first attempts to start a park system for Boston. By a codicil of the will Mr. Parkman set up a special fund, which in 1920 amounted to over $5,200,000, "the income of which is to be applied to the maintenance and improvement of the Common and the parks now existing, and is not to be used for the purchase of additional land for park purposes. Any portion of said income which may not be required for the above purposes in any year is to be added and invested as part of said fund." During the first ten years after the city accepted this great fund, a large part of the income was spent on the renovation of the Common and on the creation and maintenance of an aquarium at Marine Park and a zoological garden at Franklin Park. An exhaustive investigation into the proper use of the fund, made upon the request of Mayor Andrew J. Peters in 1922, by a cominittee headed by Percival Gal-
i
663
PARKS
lagher, landscape architect, resulted in a report to which all persons interested in the Boston park system should go for information concerning the Parkman bequest.
Since 1900 there have been two major park projects added to the system through the development of the Strandway and the addition of Governor's Island. The development of the existing system has been largely a matter of adaptation to new conditions by the use of the Parkman Fund. As pre- viously noted, a "zoo" was constructed about the "Greeting" of Franklin Park and later a Rose Garden added, opposite the Aviary and the Flying Cage. Throughout the whole park system radical changes have been necessary to make the roads available for motor traffic. Indced, the boulevards connecting the various parks are themselves an attractive featurc. Many changes have also been made in the arrangement of Boston Common. Most of these revisions in design have been made with the advice of Mr. Arthur A. Shurcliff, who has fully appreciated the dangers and responsibilities of tampering with works of art.
In 1925 Mr. Shurcliff presented a report on "Future Parks, Playgrounds and Parkways," which opened another period of constructive design and plan- ning for the Boston parks. Mr. Shurcliff is now landscape architect to the department, which in 1930 has under its charge, as part of the park system, 2,446 acres of parks, 43 miles of parkway and 372 acres of playgrounds. The city parks and playgrounds together cover almost exactly one tenth of the land area of Boston and this liberal apportionment of territory for recreation purposes does not include Stony Brook Reservation, which is under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan District Commission.
The Boston park system may be said to begin physically and historically at Boston Common, and to extend out Commonwealth avenue, through the Fens and the Riverway to Jamaica Pond, and on to the Arnold Arboretum. There a connection through West Roxbury to Stony brook and Bellevue Hill joins the Boston and metropolitan park systems, while an easterly parkway Icads on to Forest Hills and Franklin Park. A journey of a mile or more diago- nally across Franklin Park brings us to the Bluc Hill avenue exit. From this cxit to the Strandway, Columbia road provides a parkway connection. Along the Strandway are such features as Columbus Park, a large playground, recently provided with an imposing stadium, the L Street Baths, which furnish separate accommodations for men, women and boys, the long array of yacht club houses bordering the roadway on the water side, and finally Marine Park with its municipal aquarium, its occan picr, the lovely semi-inclosed sheet of water known as Pleasure bay, and the new causeway leading to Castle Island and Fort Independence.
This central or principal system of connected parks corresponds closely to that outlined in the original report and described by the senior Olmsted. It is supplemented by other park arcas in every part of the city in accordance with the original plan - as by World War Memorial (formerly Wood Island) Park, Charlesbank, Chestnut Hill Reservoir, Charlestown Playground, North End Park and Copp's Hill Terraces, and Governor's Island.
-
664
FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
Such is the origin and such the general outline of the Boston municipal park system. Extensive as we have seen it to be, its area is, perhaps, less impressive than the variety to be found among its component parts.
First of all, there are cultivated gardens, laid out in patterns of formal elegance, of which the Public Garden is the best known and the most elaborately designed; but garden features, only a little less ornamental in character, appear in the larger reservations, such as the Rose, Rock and Herbaceous Gardens in Franklin Park and the smaller Rose Garden in the Fens.
Water parks, of several different types, are distinctive of Boston, reflecting the primary and enduring character of the city as a seaport bounded by con- verging rivers and sprinkled with natural ponds. The stretch of seashore from Columbia road to Castle Island offers a succession of diversified harbor and ocean views; and Savin Hill Park and World War Memorial Park repeat this effect on a smaller scale. Of a different order is the Charles River Basin (under metropolitan control), two and a half miles long and nearly half a mile wide at its broadest part, which might suggest a spacious inland lake, were it not for its urban setting, its regular banks, and the massive bridges connecting Boston and Cambridge. Contrasting with these again is the winding ribbon of well-watered meadow which, under appropriately varied names, extends from the Charles river to Jamaica Pond, assuming a more upland character on the inner reaches. Chestnut Hill Park, built on elevated land encircling the twin reservoirs, has been treated more formally than any of the others, but possesses great intrinsic beauty, which is enhanced by the charm of its suburban background. The Neponset River Reservation (a metropolitan park) preserves a bit of landscape at the bend of the placid river, which is of an idyllic character not often to be found on the boundary line of a modern city.
Parks combining meadow and woodland features come next in area. In the square mile, more or less, of territory composing Franklin Park the vistas and scenic effects are remarkable for the variety which is so characteristic of the New England landscape. One sees broad, undulating pastures framed in woodland, bits of lawn so smooth as to form natural tennis courts, scattered knolls, shaded pools lying under an almost vertical cliff, and one tract so rugged in its broken contours and its dense overgrowth of timber as to justify its name, "The Wilderness."
Even more primitive than the Franklin Park Wilderness is Hemlock Grove in the Arnold Arboretum, said to be the only rival in the world to Kew Gardens in London. A hill so steep-faced as to be almost unscalable is clothed with a stand of these somber trees, probably numbering several thousand. By a short detour the visitor reaches the heart of the Grove, where the dim light, the arching branches, the mid-forest stillness and the needle-carpeted path irresistibly suggest the nave of some great cathedral.
Stony Brook Reservation is wilder still. Here Turtle Pond, wooded thickly to the water's edge, and the rough ridges about it, invite the hardy nature-lover and resolute climber rather than the ease-loving citizen out for a comfortable stroll. This park, well described as "a rocky wilderness," is under metropolitan control but lies within the municipal boundaries.
--
665
PARKS
Several eminences crowned with monuments stand out among the open spaces that pleasantly interrupt the crowded residential areas of Boston. Among these the most conspicuous are the small park (cared for by a private associa- tion) which forms a green pedestal for Bunker Hill Monument, and Thomas Park, which is crowned by a stately tower commemorating Washington's victory over the British. Highland Park in Roxbury and Bellevue Hill in the Stony Brook Reservation are surmounted by water towers which are monu- mental in effect and serve as landmarks, being visible from a great distance.
A delightful feature of many of the Boston parks is the wild life which they continue to attract, in spite of the constant encroachment of the city popula- tion. An osprey has been seen to plunge for its prey in the larger of the Chest- nut Hill Reservoirs, and many rare as well as common species of water fowl resort to the beaches and the larger ponds, where they seem to know they are protected, to say nothing of the smaller birds and animals that still inhabit the woodland parks and apparently find life to their liking there.
To these recreational resources within the city limits must be added the surrounding chain of metropolitan parks, to which all the citizens of Boston have easy access. Before describing these a word must be said, to complete the record, about the Boston playgrounds, some of which are included within the park areas, while others are completely separate, though administered by the Park Department.
THE PLAYGROUNDS OF BOSTON
Boston may fairly claim precedence in its appreciation and adoption of a new idea put into practice in accordance with the plans and recommendations of Frederick Law Olmsted in 1886. The scene of this noteworthy experiment was the Charlesbank, a tract along the Charles river adjoining the crowded West End. Separate play areas for men and women were to be provided here. The conception cannot be better described than in the words of the original report :
"(a) A space 370 by 150 feet in extent is to be inclosed and pre- pared especially as an exercise-ground for women and children, no others being admitted. It is to be screened about with shrubbery, and is to be adapted only to simple forms of recreation in which many can be engaged at a time quietly, without compelling care-taking of an excessive sort.
"(b) A space 500 by 150 fcet in extent is to be fitted with simple gymnastic apparatus, and subject to use for most robust forms of exercise; but not games or feats likely to attract crowds in which it would be difficult to maintain order, and which would interfere with the comfort of women and children on the promenade."
Recent extensive changes in the Charles River Basin have involved altera- tions at Charlesbank; but here was the beginning of the great playground system which is now administered by the Park Department.
Six playground sites were acquired before 1895 and eleven more during the succeeding five years, including the famous area on Columbus avenue.
1
00
A special act of the Legislature in 1898 authorized a loan of $500,000 for this purpose and all eleven areas acquired during the period ending in 1900 cost an average of 128 per cent of the assessed valuation.
The playground system grew by leaps and bounds so that in Mr. Shur- cliff's report of 1925 the territorial growth of the Park Department since 1900 is shown to be largely attributable to increase in play areas. Among features recently added are the two large stadiums, one in the Fens, the other at Colum- bus Park. All this story is told by Mr. Lee in the following article and so need not be detailed here, but no account of the Boston parks would be com- plete without recognition of the fact, already mentioned, that 372 acres, a large percentage of the total lands administered by the Park Department, are pri- marily devoted to playground purposes.
THE METROPOLITAN PARKS
The third and perhaps the greatest contribution of Boston to the develop- ment of parks in the United States came through the leadership of the Hub in establishing a metropolitan system of parks. The establishment of the Boston Metropolitan Park Commission was the first recognition of the prin- ciple of regional planning in the field of parks. This Commission, following on the Metropolitan Water Commission's work, succeeded in starting the first Metropolitan Park System in this country.
At a meeting of the Park Commissioners of Boston and the surrounding cities and towns called by the Trustees of Public Reservations* in 1892, at which the chairman of the Boston Park Board presided, the proposal was put forward by Charles Eliot for a bill to make an investigation as to the possi- bilities of parks to serve the surrounding cities and towns. The resulting agitation and the support of the Park Commissioners in practically all of the cities and towns of the metropolitan area secured recognition of the idea by Governor Russell in his inaugural address, and the Legislature followed with the establishment of a preliminary commission.
The original Metropolitan Park Commission of 1893 was composed of Charles Francis Adams, Philip A. Chase and William B. de las Casas. Sylvester Baxter was named secretary and Charles Eliot was appointed landscape archi- tect. The report of the Commission included proposals by the Landscape Architect for the reservation of
"(1) Spaces on the ocean front. (2) As much as possible of the shores and islands of the bay. (3) The courses of the larger tidal estuaries (above their commercial usefulness), because of the value of these courses as pleasant routes to the heart of the city and to the sea. (4) Two or three large areas of wild forest on the outer rim of the inhabited area. (5) Numerous small squares, playgrounds and parks in the midst of the dense populations."
* Established by chapter 352, Acts of 1891, for the purpose of acquiring, holding, arranging, maintaining and opening to the public, under suitable regulations, beautiful and historical places and tracts of land within this Commonwealth.
-
667
PARKS
"Local and private action," he added, "can do much under the fifth head; but the four other heads call loudly for action by the whole metropolitan community."
The inclusion of specific areas shown on a map was recommended:
1. On the ocean front from Winthrop northward, including all of Reverc Beach.
2. On Quincy bay from Squantum to Hough's Neck.
3. Along the tidal estuaries of the Charles, Mystic and Neponset rivers.
4. Along the surrounding horseshoe of hills at Lynn Woods, Middlesex Fells, Prospect and Doublet Hills, Stony Brook Woods, and the Blue Hills.
5. Special areas at Newton Upper Falls, Beaver brook, and Waverley Oaks, and connecting parkways between the Mystic river and Revere, and along the upper waters of the three principal rivers.
These preliminary reports led to the enactment of the Park Act, chapter 407 of the Acts of 1893, creating a Metropolitan Parks District to include Boston and thirty-six other neighboring cities and towns. The same act set up a permanent commission of five, appointed by the Governor and serv- ing without salary, which was empowered to acquire in the name and for the benefit of the Commonwealth lands and rights in land. The first appropria- tion was for $1,000,000, which was provided by the issue of forty-ycar state bonds. These were repaid through a sinking fund created by ycarly assess- ments upon the cities and towns of the district, according to a table of appor- tionment made each five years by a special commission appointed by the Supreme Court. The ycarly expense and the cost of care and maintenance of the reservations were by the same act also to be included in the state tax upon the same cities and towns, according to the same tables of apportionment. Under this act and its amendments appropriations aggregating $3,300,000 were placed at the disposal of the Commission prior to May, 1896.
The park holdings acquired under the Park Acts were then as follows:
1897
Area in Acres
Blue Hills
4,232.09
Middlesex Fells .
1,802.37
Stony Brook
460.64
Charles River
245.69
Beaver Brook
58.08
Hemlock Gorge
24.46
Revere Beach
66.19
Total
6,889.52
"To these must be added the land for West Roxbury Parkway, 156 acres, transferred to the care of the Boston Park Commission, and 1,200 acres in the Middlesex Fells, at present under the care of this Board, although controlled by local water boards and soon to be in
66S
FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
part by the Metropolitan Water Board. The lands to be taken on Charles river above Watertown arc not included in this table." *
This list of reservations shows the remarkable progress made by the Metropolitan Commission in the first four years. Practically all of the woods reservations which were recommended in the original report had then bcen acquired.
Progress was also recorded in the early years along a somewhat different line under the terms of the Boulevard Act of 1894, chapter 288, which pro- vided an appropriation of $500,000 and power to acquire lands and existing roads for the purpose of connecting the reservations with each other and with the cities and towns of the district.
The acquirements under the Boulevard Act up to 1897 may be summarized as follows:
1897
Length in Miles
. Blue Hills Parkway
2.25
Middlesex Fells Parkway .
4.32
Mystic Valley Parkway
2.40
Reverc Beach Parkway
.62
Neponset River Parkway .
.40
It is significant that the general plan and report of Charles Eliot, Land- scape Architect, submitted with the report of the Preliminary Commission of 1893, was substantially the same as that which accompanied the report of the Commission in 1903, ten years later. Comparison of the two shows that, in the language of the report itself, "almost the only difference is that on the original plan the areas for the proposed system were referred to under the single name of parks and were all indicated by a single color as lands proposed to be acquired; while on the map of 1903 some of these areas are referred to as parks or reservations and some as parkways or boulevards, and only a comparatively small area is in the color which indicates lands yet to be acquired. An examina- tion of the early report will show that the smaller areas referred to as parks were connecting arcas to be acquired for the purpose of furnishing parkway or boulevard communication between the reservations and either the prin- cipal park areas already acquired by the various cities and towns of the dis- trict or the chief centers of population of the district. This distinction was recognized within one year of the beginning of the work by the passage of the Boulevard Act.
"It will be clearly understood, then, that the acquirement and development of the Metropolitan Parks System was begun and has proceeded to its present completeness according to a well-defined plan; and that the Legislature has recognized this from year to year by making substantially all appropriations for the work being carried on by this Commission as additions either to the Parks Loans, authorized under the general Park Act, chapter 407 of the Acts
* 1898 Report, Metropolitan Park Commission.
669
PARKS
of 1893, and the Nantasket Beach Act, chapter 464 of the Acts of 1899, or to the Boulevard Loan, authorized under chapter 288 of the Acts of 1894.
"When the Commission entered upon its work in 1893, it was upon the understanding that the acquirement of the necessary lands for the system was of higher importance than their immediate development. It has not been possible to adhere strictly to this original plan, however, because with the acquire- ment of the woods reservations the necessity for their protection against fire inmediately arose, and with the ownership of the beaches and control of the rivers there came the necessity of providing adequately for a public use which had before been inadequately provided for by private enterprise; and because, as soon as land for parkways and boulevards was acquired, a public desire for construction of some portions, at least, showed itself so vigorously as to lead the Legislature to make appropriations for construction of those portions for which the demand was made.
"The Commission regrets that all the lands for the entire system were not provided in advance of construction, and that plans for construction have not always been worked out in all their details in advance of appropriations; but it takes the greatest satisfaction in the fact that all the lands which have been acquired and all the construction which has been entered upon are proper parts of the entire system, and represent progress towards its completion as originally contemplated. The skill in planning the system, the rapidity with which present results have been accomplished, the intelligent appreciation manifested by the citizens of the district and of the Commonwealth generally, and the patient care with which the Legislature of each year has considered every matter relating to it, have excited a world-wide interest in the metro- politan parks. Even in their present condition, they have added not only a valuable asset of lands, but also an attractiveness and reputation to Boston and to the Commonwealth which is in itself a dividend of most practical form."*
This summary of almost thirty years ago illustrates the rapidity with which the Metropolitan Park System was acquired and the beginning of its develop- ment. While several new projects have been added to the system in the interval since that report, the principal activities of the Commission and its successor, the Metropolitan District Commission (1920), have been in the construction and maintenance of roads, bridges, trails and all the other varieties of park facilities. Under these circumstances it was natural that most of the areas recently added to the system should have been acquired for parkways at various points, such as Lynn Fells, Alewife Brook, Dedham, Furnace Brook and the Old Colony Parkway, whereas no major reservations have been added to the list.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.