44 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY 



Stephen Glover, by Martin Milmore; of William Lloyd Garrison, by Olin L. Warner. 

 Unfortunately this section of Commonwealth Avenue is lacking in suitable terminal 

 features, doubtless because of the excessive utilitarianism of the commissioners and 

 engineer of the Commonwealth. 



When the next section of the Back Bay district west of Massachusetts Avenue came 

 to be filled, the engineer in charge, for utilitarian reasons — to avoid a very long diagonal 

 bridge over the Boston and Albany Railroad, and to afford regular blocks of land parallel 

 with the railroad — diverted Commonwealth Avenue and again ignored the opportunity 

 to create a dignified feature, such as a "public square" or circle, which would have afforded 

 a suitable site for a great monument or public building facing east toward the older 

 portion of Commonwealth Avenue. 



THE NEW PARK MOVEMENT 



Stimulated, no doubt, by the great success of Central Park in New York City, and 

 of Prospect Park in Brooklyn, and other park projects in other cities of the country, and 

 by the land-boom which culminated in 1873, ^ petition was widely circulated and signed 

 by citizens during 1869 in favor of a new public park. As a result of this petition and 

 of the speeches and newspaper articles, a joint special committee of the City Council 

 on a New Public Park was appointed. After various public hearings, this committee 

 reported to the City Council, December 20, 1869. The report was adopted, and the Mayor 

 presented to the Legislature a draft of a bill to establish a Park Commission. The bill 

 as amended was passed, but required a two-thirds vote of the people accepting it. The 

 subject of parks had not, however, been sufficiently agitated, and conservatism and the 

 usual dread of increased taxation, aided, no doubt, by a democratic dislike for a provision 

 of the bill which required part of the members of the Board to be appointed by the Governor, 

 resulted in the failure of the bill to secure the requisite two-thirds vote in the election 

 of 1870. 



After various other efforts, a different Park Commission Act was finally passed and 

 accepted by popular vote in 1875. This act, however, left the supplying of funds to the 

 City Council, requiring a two-thirds vote of each chamber. This practically blocked 

 further progress until 1877, when, after much agitation, the City Council, fairly driven 

 by public opinion and by the even more effective lobbying of land-owners and speculators, 

 who expected to derive a profit thereby, finally authorized the laying out of a park in 

 the unimproved portion of the Back Bay, and provided, by borrowing, the funds necessary 

 to pay for the land. This was the Back Bay Park, later called the Fens. 



THE BOSTON PARK SYSTEM 



The old Common and the newer Public Garden, together with numerous public squares 

 which it was the custom for the land-owners to dedicate when they subdivided their lands 

 into streets and lots, had been managed by a joint committee of the City Council. Not- 

 withstanding the appointment of a Park Commission in 1875, this arrangement still con- 

 tinues. It is desirable for the practical reason that it keeps the later park system out 

 of politics. 



Most of the parks and parkways of Boston form a connected system. One can drive. 



