22 The Annals of the American Academy 



But, while in a general way the Boston park system is known, 

 its extent is not appreciated, and the difficulties to be overcome are 

 assumed by many to have been necessarily indifferent, otherwise 

 such a thing would not have been done in this country. Authorities 

 in other cities will tell you that for this or that reason the situation 

 in Boston was better adapted to carrying out the program, either 

 because of its financial condition, its natural location, or some other 

 advantage not enjoyed by the sister city which occurs to the political 

 authority in question as a plausible excuse for not buckling down 

 to the task of finding a way to do likewise. 



There are within eleven miles of the State House at Boston 

 thirty-eight separate cities and towns. Many of them had small 

 parks, some large ones, so that there was a total acreage of nearly 

 seven thousand acres. It was necessary to devise a plan by which 

 all of these separate corporate entities would be compelled to bear 

 their portions of the expense. A way was found in the appointment 

 of a Metropolitan Commission, which did not take charge of these 

 separate holdings, but has secured others and joined many of the 

 new and old ones by parkways. The cost has been adjusted by a 

 separate commission. 



Under the lead of Charles Eliot, a preliminary commission was 

 appointed in 1893 to consider the possibility of carrying out a scheme 

 which he had gradually evolved. The commission reported favor- 

 ably a year later. A loan of $5,000,000 was secured for beginning 

 the work and a permanent commission was appointed. Other loans 

 have since been authorized. The commission in its tenth annual 

 report shows that it has spent over $11,000,000, with the result that 

 within the radius of eleven miles of the State House, an area in- 

 habited in 1900 by eleven hundred thousand people, there are now 

 fifteen thousand one hundred and seventy-five acres of park land, 

 which includes all separate park holdings of the many cities and 

 towns of the district. Fifteen miles of parkways have been con- 

 structed and land has been secured for ten miles more. Ten miles 

 additional will soon be acquired. The average annual cost of main- 

 tenance of the entire park area is slightly over $500,000. The com- 

 mission has been authorized to spend $300,000 in addition in each 

 of the ensuing five years and thereafter $1,500,000 additional, in 

 order to complete the system. And yet more. The Charles River 

 reservation ends at the Harvard Bridge. That reservation is now 



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