OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS 59 



natural resources of the Boston district was to be taken from them, a popular outcry 

 arose. This attitude of this community toward certain tracts of land and its favorable 

 attitude toward parks in general will go far to explain the readiness with which a popular 

 movement for metropolitan parks was begun and the ease with which its objects were 

 attained. 



In 1 89 1 a body of citizens, consisting of members of the various local park boards 

 in the vicinity of Boston, members of a corporation known as "The Trustees of Public 

 Reservations," members of a popular club of mountain-climbers known as "The Appa- 

 lachian Mountain Club," members of philanthropic societies, and individuals, appointed 

 a representing committee to appeal to the State Legislature for parks in the vicinity of 

 Boston for the benefit of the whole community. In reference to this appeal the legislature 

 of 1892 appointed an inquiring commission of three members, who were instructed to 

 study the needs of the district in regard to parks and to report to the next Legislature. 

 The commission was empowered to employ assistants, and to prepare such plans and 

 documents as might be necessary for a complete exposition of the problem and its solution. 

 The member of the commission examined the district alone and with local park boards, 

 and employed Charles EKot* as their landscape architect. The first report, dated January, , 

 1893, is of great interest. This report led to the appointment of a permanent commission 

 empowered to provide parks for the advantage of that part of the region about Boston 

 included within the'Iimits of certain of the cities and towns which were enumerated as con- 

 stituting the Metropolitan Park District of Boston. The Board of Metropolitan Park 

 Commissioners has continued to exercise its powers for the taking and improvement of 

 lands for the Metropohtan District until the present time, and the remainder of this 

 pamphlet will be devoted to an outhne of the work which the Board has accomplished. 



THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE METROPOLITAN DISTRICT IN 1893 



Before enumerating the recommendations of the Metropolitan Park Commissioners, 

 and describing the lands taken by them for public parks, it will be profitable to consider 

 the general landscape features of the seashore and the inland country of the Metropolitan 

 district as they appeared in 1893. A contour map of Boston and its vicinity, including 

 all the towns of the Metropolitan District, will be found accompanying this paper. 

 By reference to this plan, it will be seen that the Atlantic Ocean washes the wharves of 

 Boston and the curiously irregular shores which converge toward them from the north- 

 east and the southeast, through the channels and over the shoals of the island-strewn 

 Boston Bay. In the innermost reaches of this bay, three rivers — ^the Mystic, the Charles 

 and the Neponset — meet the sea, and discharge the waters of the comparatively level 

 but hill-dotted Boston basin and the waters of the horseshoe-shaped range of abrupt 

 hills upon the north, west and south. The positions of the various cities and towns which 

 occupy this country are shown upon the plan, together with the highways and railroads 

 which connect them. (A revised contour map will be found facing page 42.) 



The Ocean. — The advance of population in an easterly direction from the Boston 

 basin is barred by the ocean, whose borders will always remain open to light and air, no 

 matter what shadows and barriers may darken the inland districts; recreation will always 

 be at hand upon its borders, wherever there is a foothold or an opportunity to enter boats. 



* Deceased March 25, 1897. 



