OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS 43 



been intended to define and limit the Common proper, and to leave the area west of Charles 

 Street to be treated simply as a piece of real estate to be sold off from time to time, as 

 land south of Boylston Street had been, and continued to be, sold. At any rate, the same 

 vote authorized the selectmen to sell, and they did sell, land west of Charles Street, begin- 

 ning 500 feet south of Beacon Street, for rope-walks, which it was desired to get located 

 out of the built-up part of the Town, as they were dangerous because of fire. 



However, the land where these rope-walks stood was purchased back by the Town 

 in 1824. In 1856 an agreement was entered into between the Commonwealth, the City, 

 and the Boston & Roxbury Mill Corporation, by which Arlington Street was defined 

 and some strips of land conveyed to the City for the purpose of extending what is now 

 the Public Garden westward to Arhngton Street and northward to Beacon Street. At 

 that time there was a little upland in what is now the Public Garden, but it was mostly 

 beach and salt marsh and mud flat exposed at low water. 



THE BACK BAY 



The district of Boston known from early days as the Back Bay, extending from the 

 Common on the east to Brookline, and from Charles River on the north to the neck south 

 of the Boston and Providence Railroad, was formerly salt-marsh and mud-flats broken 

 here and there by winding tidal channels. Before steam engines were much used, and 

 before coal became cheap, there was a strong movement for the utilization of any con- 

 venient water-power. During this movement the Boston & Roxbury Mill Corporation 

 acquired by law the right to use the Back Bay for tidal water-power. In 1821 a causeway 

 was completed along the south margin of Charles River from the corner of Beacon and 

 Charles Streets, where the upland ended, westerly to Brookline. This causeway, being 

 known as the Mill Dam and now as Beacon Street, was made wide enough for a toll road, 

 which not only became at once an important thoroughfare to Brookline, Brighton, and 

 other suburban towns, but, as it began at the most fashionable residence district of Boston 

 — Beacon Hill — it was for many years the main pleasure drive of the city. Its usefulness 

 and prestige for this purpose has been such that no street railway tracks have ever been 

 permitted in this extension of Beacon Street east of Massachusetts Avenue. The various 

 salt-marshes within this area remained private property, having always been valued 

 for the sake of the salt-hay crop. Gradually, with the growth of population and the filling 

 in and sale of lots in the other tidal mill ponds and shallow margins about the original 

 city, this Back Bay district became valuable enough to warrant the cost of filling. The 

 Commonwealth undertook the work, and did it on an unusuafly extensive scale. The 

 simple rectangular street system was presumably devised by the engineer of the Harbor 

 and Land Commission — a State Board. 



COMMONWEALTH AVENUE 



It is said that the late Arthur Gilman, architect of the City Hall, suggested Common- 

 wealth Avenue from the Public Garden to Massachusetts Avenue as the central feature 

 of the new residential district. It is 250 feet wide between house fronts, and the central 

 lawns are 100 feet wide, including a central promenade in which at intervals are the fol- 

 lowing monuments: Statue of Alexander Hamilton, by William Rimmer; of General 



