211 
PARK AND CEMRTERY 
Boston’s Metropolitan ParK System.— II. 
Early in 1878 the Hoard of Park Commissioners 
offered a prize of $500.00 for a plan for the improve- 
ment of a portion of the Back Bay district. In re- 
sponse about twenty plans were submitted but none 
was entirely satisfactory. The i)roblem was un- 
usually difficult. The solution involved not only the 
bav but also the Stonv Brook Creek and Muddy River, 
the former an outlet of a water shed of some 8,000 
acres in extent and reaching the Charles River by 
flowing through flat meadowland through the greater 
portion of which it was affected by tides. There were 
practically no buildings upon this wide e.xpanse of 
meadowland. It was but a matter of time when the 
city must deepen or enlarge the channel to provide an 
outlet allowing a more rapid flow for the increasingly 
larger volumne of water to be conducted through its 
channel. The possibility of this increased volume 
occurring during the periods of high tide or easterly 
storms affecting the waters of the Charles River, its 
outlet, complicated the problem and necessitated a 
special provision. Competitive plans not being entirely 
satisfactory, Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted and Mr. 
Joseph P. Davis, landscape architect advisory and 
city engineer, respectively, were delegated to study the 
I'roblem and report. 
The Back Bay was located partl_\- in Boston and 
partly in Brookline. Muddy River, a mere brook, en- 
tered it from Brookline. Stonv Brook has its source 
in Boston, but about a mile of its lower portion 
formed the boundary between the City of Boston and 
the Township of Brookline. Hence the proposed treat- 
ment as later adopted affected the town and it ap- 
pointed a special committee to negotiate with the 
City. The City's officials were unwilling to sanction 
the admission into the park of the water from Muddy 
River over whose headwaters the municipality had no 
jurisdiction. 
After prolonged and earnest deliberation a plan pre- 
jjared by Mr. Olmsted was adopted and since, con- 
struction has, in the main, progressed in accordance 
BACK BAY FENS, BOSTON, SHOWING “FENNY" CHARACTER OF THE TRACT. 
