THE METROPOLITAN PARK SYSTEM OF BOSTON 



By FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED 

 (Meetine of July 8, 1905) 



An address on the Metropolitan Park System of Boston was part of the program 

 r\ of the summer meeting of July 8, 1905. This address was not reported. As it seems 

 very desirable to have a complete and authoritative description of the entire Boston 

 Park System as one of the most interesting and important in the world, the following pages 

 are reprinted from "A History and Description of the Boston Metropolitan Parks," written 

 by Mr. A. A. ShurtlefF under the general direction of Mr. F. L. Olmsted, and published in 

 1900 under the authority of the Metropolitan Park Commissioners, by the Board of Paris 

 Exposition Managers, Boston, Mass., as part of the Exhibition of the Public Works Boston 

 Metropolitan District, U. S. Section, Group VI, Champ de Mars. To illustrate and bring 

 it up-to-date, a map of the Boston Park System, furnished by the courtesy of the Metro- 

 politan Park Commission of Boston, and revised up to 1910, and a table of areas taken 

 from the report of the Metropolitan Park Commission, of 191 o, have been added. 



METROPOLITAN BOSTON 



In outlining the growth of the original settlement which became the great city of 

 Boston, it was mentioned that various small settlements sprang up near the young city 

 and grew to be of considerable size. Certain of these towns were gathered into counties 

 as early as 1640, and the limits of each township were defined. These early townships 

 included large tracts within their boundaries, and villages soon appeared in them, which 

 increased so rapidly in size and influence as to become unwieldy and unwilling precincts 

 of the original township. Such villages secured division from the original body, and 

 established smaller townships of their own. It thus came about that the number of inde- 

 pendent municipalities within a radius of eleven miles of Boston, in 1890, numbered thirty- 

 seven, of which twelve were cities. The population of this district was approximately 

 a million souls, of which number half were citizens of Boston. The interests of the entire 

 district centered in this great heart of commerce and industry. Except for the arbitrary 

 boundary line and political separation of the smaller municipalties from Boston, all the 

 inhabitants of the district constituted one metropolis. Their real political separation 

 however, was made plain, and the disadvantages of it were evident, when it was discovered 

 that works for the advantage of the whole community could not be undertaken because 

 of the barrier between the parts. In 1875 it became apparent that this great population 

 had at least one problem before it which could not be solved effectively by the independent 

 action of the separate municipalities. That problem was the problem of sewage disposal. 

 At that time the health of a large part of the district was menaced by the discharge of 

 countless sewers into tide water along the harbor front and along the borders of entering 

 streams. The city of Boston was able to take independent action at once for herself, and 

 installed a system of sewers within her own boundaries, discharging into the outer harbor. 

 This improvement only partially relieved the nuisance affecting the community at large, 

 but it made the advantages of further action more evident. The situation of the towns 



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