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Back Bay Fens | |
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![]() The Back Bay Fens viewed from the Boylston Street bridge | |
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Location | Fenway–Kenmore, Boston |
Coordinates | 42°20′32″N71°05′37″W / 42.3423°N 71.0935°W |
Created | 1879 |
Designer | Frederick Law Olmsted |
Olmstead Park System | |
NRHP reference No. | 71000086 |
The Back Bay Fens, often called The Fens, is a parkland and urban wild in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1879. [1] Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted to serve as a link in the Emerald Necklace park system, the Fens gives its name to the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood.
The Fens is a large picturesque park that forms part of Boston's Emerald Necklace. It is essentially an ancient spot of saltwater marshland that has been surrounded by dry land, disconnected from the tides of the Atlantic Ocean, and landscaped into a park with fresh water within. The park is also known as the Fens or the Fenway. The latter term can also refer to either the surrounding neighborhood or the parkway on its southern border.
When Boston was settled in the early 17th century the Shawmut Peninsula on which it was built was connected to Roxbury by a spit of sandy ground called "The Neck." The adjacent area of marshland to the west was a tidal flat of the Charles River. The area became malodorous with time as it became tainted with sewage from the growing settlement.
For the dual purpose of eliminating the health and aesthetic problem created by the polluted bay waters and creating new and valuable Boston real estate, a series of land reclamation projects was begun in 1820 and continued for the rest of the century. The filling of present-day Back Bay was completed by 1882. Filling reached Kenmore Square in 1890 and finished in the Fens in 1900. These projects more than doubled the size of the Shawmut Peninsula.
Olmsted's challenge was to restore the spot of marsh which was preserved into an ecologically healthy place that could also be enjoyed as a recreation area. Combining his renowned landscaping talents with state-of-the-art sanitary engineering, he turned a foul-smelling tidal creek and swamp into "scenery of a winding, brackish creek, within wooded banks; gaining interest from the meandering course of the water." [2]
Olmsted designed the Fens to be flushed by the tides twice daily. However, in 1910 a dam was constructed at Craigie's Bridge, closing the Charles River estuary to the ocean tides and forming a body of freshwater above the dam. Thus, the Fens became a freshwater lagoon regularly accepting storm water from the Charles River Basin.
Soon after, noted landscape architect Arthur Shurcliff, a protégé of Olmsted, added new features such as the Kelleher Rose Garden and employed the more formal landscape style popular in the 1920s and 1930s. An athletic field was also added.
In 1941, at the outbreak of United States involvement in World War II, citizens planted a victory garden within the Fens. While these were common in their era, the one in the Fens is now the last continually operating Victory Garden in existence and today is a much-valued community garden of flowers and vegetables. [2]
In 1983, the Back Bay Fens were designated as a Boston Landmark. [3]
The Emerald Necklace Conservancy is headquartered in the park and operates a year-round visitor center.
The Back Bay Fens was designed with six entrances, with straight roads and formal lawns that contrasted with the more wild Fens. [4] [5]
The original main entrance was the Beacon Entrance, running from Beacon Street to Boylston Street, bounded by Charlesgate East and Charlesgate West. A crescent-shaped bridge crossed over the Boston and Albany Railroad, connecting the Commonwealth Avenue Mall with the Fens at Gaston Square. The entrance has been wholly modified, beginning with the addition of a bridge for the Ipswich Street line in 1898. [6] A bust of Patrick Collins was added shortly after the mayor's 1905 death. The Charles River Esplanade, completed in 1910, connected with the Beacon Street end of the entrance. The bridge carrying Commonwealth Avenue was replaced with two bridges for separated eastbound and westbound traffic in 1917. [6] Storrow Drive was built along the Esplanade in 1951–55, severing the connection with the Beacon Entrance. [6] The construction of the Massachusetts Turnpike Extension in the 1960s caused the removal of the curved bridge, separating the entrance (now Charlesgate Park) from the rest of the Fens. It was replaced with the Bowker Overpass, which overshadows the remaining parkland; the Muddy River was moved to a small side channel, and the bust was relocated east along the Mall. [7] [8] Isolated from the Fens, Charlesgate was included with the Commonwealth Avenue Mall in its 1978 Boston Landmark designation. [9] : 16
The Boylston entrance is located just southeast of the Beacon Entrance, where Boylston Street meets the Fenway. [5] A statue of John Boyle O'Reilly was added in the triangular center of the junction in 1894. The intersection was rebuilt in 1982, with the statue relocated into the park. [4] : 13
The Westland Entrance is on the east side of the Back Bay Fens, with lawns lining a block of Westland Avenue between the Fenway and Hemenway Street. Westland Gate, a pair of marble monuments with lion's-head fountains feeding horse troughs on the side, frames the entrance. It was designed by Guy Lowell and funded by Ellen Cheney Johnson as a memorial to her husband. [4] Westland Gate was completed around 1905, at which time it replaced the Beacon Entrance as the main entrance to the Fens. [10] : 54
The Huntington Entrance runs along Forsyth Way from Huntington Avenue to the Fenway on the south side of the Fens, just east of the Museum of Fine Arts. As originally laid out by Olmsted, it had twin roadways framing a canal that carried the Stony Brook into the Muddy River, with a bridge carrying the Fenway and paths over the brook. The entrance was rebuilt several times as the Stony Brook was placed in conduits; the canal was filled in 1905 and the bridge demolished. [4]
The Tremont Entrance is a wide formal lawn on the southwest corner of the Fens. It originally ran to the Fenway from Huntington Avenue at Longwood Avenue, in the direction of Tremont Street. Initial plans called for it to continue as a parkway to Tremont Street and over Parker Hill, but high lands prices prevented that design. The Emerald Necklace and its parkways were instead built along the Muddy River, and the Tremont Entrance was only built to Huntington Avenue. [4] : 11 The Huntington end of the entrance was "obliterated" by expansion of Boston State College (now occupied by the Massachusetts College of Art and Design) in the 1960s and 1970s. [4] [11] The remaining section north of Tetlow Street is now Evans Way Park. The park and eponymous street were named for Robert Evans, whose wife Marie Antoinette Evans funded a new wing of the Museum of Fine Arts in 1915 in his memory. [12]
The Longwood Entrance follows the Muddy River from Brookline Avenue at the west end of the Fens. Narrower than the main section of the Fens, the Longwood Entrance connects it to the Riverway. [4] Roadway widenings in the 1950s covered over much of the river between Avenue Louis Pasteur and Brookline Avenue. [9] : 23 Phase 1 of the Muddy River Restoration Project, which lasted from 2013 to 2016, daylit this section of the river and restored much of the former Longwood Entrance. [13] The section between the Riverway and Avenue Louis Pasteur (including the former Longwood Entrance) was renamed as Justine Mee Liff Park in 2013, honoring a former Boston Parks and Recreation Commissioner. [14] The park opened in April 2017. [15]
Within the main section of the Back Bay Fens (Boylston Street to Avenue Louis Pasteur), three road bridges and two footbridges cross the Muddy River. The road bridges were designed by John C. Olmsted, Frederick Law Omlsted's adopted son. The largest and most significant is the Boylston Street bridge, designed as a "brilliant collaboration" between architect Henry Hobson Richardson (a frequent Olmsted collaborator) and the Olmsted firm. [4] : 3 John Olmsted designed the main stone arch span, while Richardson added the tourelles flanking the arch. The foundation and abutments were built in 1880, though Richardson did not submit his design until July 1881. [16] Cape Ann granite was not chosen as the material that December; although Richardson preferred rough boulders, seam-faced rock was used. [16] The arch was constructed in 1883, and the bridge opened in 1884. [4] : 3 The bridge was "totally different from any other masonry bridge of its day", and Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge applied its scale and materials to later structures along the Emerald Necklace. [4] : 3
The Agassiz Road bridge, which connects Park Drive and the Fenway through the middle of the Fens, was designed by John Olmsted. [4] : 2 It has five small brick arches, with granite abutments and piers supported by spruce piles driven into the marsh. The bridge is faced with Roxbury puddingstone salvaged from old walls in Franklin Park. [4] : 2 Construction began in 1887 and was completed in February 1888; parapets were added when the road was paved in 1891. [4] : 2 [17]
The Fen Bridge connects Park Drive and the Fenway at the west end of the Fens opposite Avenue Louis Pasteur. Also designed by John Olmsted, it is a masonry arch with a 15-foot (4.6 m) span. [4] : 2 [17] Like the Agassiz Road bridge, its abutments are granite supported by spruce piles and the facing is reused Roxbury puddingstone. Construction lasted from February to November 1891; the bridge opened with Audubon Road (now Park Drive) on January 3, 1892. The cost of the bridge was $27,699 (equivalent to $849,000in 2023). [17] [18] The triangular median at the south end of the bridge was designated Higginson Circle after Henry Lee Higginson in 1920. [19] The west parapet was removed in the 1950s when the Muddy River was culverted through the Longwood Entrance. [9] : 23
A pair of footbridges are located on opposite sides of the Museum of Fine Arts: one across from Forsyth Way, the other north of Museum Road. They were built in the 1920s (the Forsyth Way bridge replacing an earlier crossing [20] ) as part of Arthur Shurcliff's reconfiguration of The Fens, and rebuilt as concrete bridges with granite facing in 1979. [4] : 2 [9] : 21 A third footbridge at Evans Way existed in the early 20th century, but was gone by 1915. [20] A replacement was designed during the 1920s work and finally built in 1939. [21] The bridge was disassembled in 1979 with the other footbridges, but it was never rebuilt, possibly due to funding shortfalls created by Proposition 2½. [22]
North from Boylston Street in Charlesgate Park, the Muddy River is crossed by Ipswich Street, the Worcester Main Line railroad bridge, the Massachusetts Turnpike, two bridges carrying Commonwealth Avenue, Beacon Street, and Storrow Drive, as well as the elevated Bowker Overpass and its ramps. [6] The west border of the Fens (where it meets the Riverway) is Brookline Avenue, which crosses the Muddy River on a wide bridge completed in 2016. [6]
Along with the Evans Way footbridge, two road bridges are no longer extant. The Fenway originally crossed the Stony Brook canal at the Huntington Entrance on a five-arched bridge designed by the firm of Walker & Kimball. The outer arches were occupied by footpaths, allowing pedestrians to cross under the road. The bridge was faced with red brick ornamented with Milford granite; the archways were faced with patterns of colored glazed bricks. A small iron footbridge crossed the canal just north of the road bridge. [17] The bridges were removed when the canal was filled in 1905; the road bridge was demolished with explosives. [23] [4] : 2
At the Beacon Entrance, a curved bridge crossed the Boston and Albany Railroad (and after the 1890s, Ipswich Street). Its south end connected to Boylston Street at Gaston Square, while its north end met Commonwealth Avenue. Although Richardson sketched designs for truss and suspension bridges, Frederick Olmsted insisted on a plate girder bridge; Richardson's contribution was ultimately the design of the decorative metalwork and lamps. The bridge was constructed in 1880–83. [16] It was demolished around 1962 during construction of the Turnpike Extension and replaced by the Bowker Overpass, though the south abutment remains extant. [4] : 13
The Agassiz Road Duck House was designed by architect Alexander Longfellow, and built in 1897. It was used exclusively as a public restroom facility, and was closed after a damaging fire in 1986. The Duck House is sited within a prominent landscape in The Fens adjacent to the Agassiz Road bridge—the only building along that roadway. Agassiz Road is a significant pedestrian link between the East and West Fenway neighborhoods though it provides only one-way vehicular circulation. Much of the building that we see today is original; however, the roof design was simplified when it was reconstructed following the 1986 fire.
The Stony Brook Gatehouse was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson. The building features a slate roof with distinctive wooden beams and walls of smooth stones of varying cuts. The red mortar used between the stones is similar to that of many of Richardson's other works. A similar companion building, designed by Richardson protege Edmund Wheelright, sits directly next to this structure. It was added at a later date to contain pump equipment for the Boston Water and Sewer Commission. The Stony Brook Gatehouse has since been decommissioned and in 2010 was converted into the headquarters for the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, and a visitors' center by Ann Beha Architects.
Dedicated on December 27, 1925, the Fire Alarm Office is near the intersection of Westland Avenue and Hemenway Street. It is a neoclassical limestone building in the shape of a villa, with large ornate bronze entry doors to one side. Its facade is inscribed:
erected by the citizens of boston to fortify and extend the principle of organized resistance to the scourge of fire, consecrated and dedicated to the service through which this principle is so nobly perpetuated. [24]
A monument was dedicated in 1973 to baseball player and humanitarian Roberto Clemente (1934–1972). It is a 5-foot-tall (1.5 m) stone marker inset with a large bronze relief of Clemente and a short inscription in Spanish and English, "Roberto Clemente: His three loves; Puerto Rico, baseball, and children." The adjacent baseball diamond, which is part of the athletic field, is also dedicated in his honor.
The Katharine Lee Bates monument is a freestanding granite tablet inset with a bronze plaque on Agassiz Road overlooking the Muddy River and Stony Brook gatehouse. The plaque gives brief information on Bates and includes the lyrics of "America the Beautiful", which she wrote at the turn of the 20th century.
Close to the Westland Gate is the John Boyle O'Reilly Memorial. This memorial, sculpted in 1894 by Daniel Chester French memorializes the Irish poet and editor of the Catholic newspaper The Pilot. In the front of the memorial sits the bust of O'Reilly while the backside depicts a statue of Erin weaving a wreath of laurel and oak for her sons Poetry and Patriotism with Celtic calligraphy as a backdrop.
Several streets surrounding the Fens (Kilmarnock, Queensbury) were given names of Scottish peerages and towns mentioned in Robert Burns's literary works. In 1910 The Burns Memorial Association of Boston held a competition to make a statue of Burns, to correspond with that nomenclature as an honor. The winner was artist Henry Hudson Kitson. Kitson completed the statue in 1919, and Governor Calvin Coolidge dedicated it the next year on New Years Day, 1920. The piece was moved from the Fenway to Winthrop Square at Otis and Devonshire Streets, in the Financial District, in the summer of 1975. It was restored and returned to its original location on October 30, 2019. [25]
A memorial commemorating the radio operators who lost their lives on merchant ships during the Second World War depicts a sinking ship with "End of service" in Morse Code around the base. It was moved in the 1990s to Peddocks Island at the request of veteran operators, as Peddocks was where they trained. Its plinth remains located on Agassiz Road adjacent to the Agassiz Bridge, overlooking the war memorials across from the Kelleher Rose Garden.
The Temple Bell, a bronze bell cast in 1675 by Tanaka Gonzaemon under the supervision of Suzuki Magoemon, was dedicated to Bishamon, a Buddhist god of children and good luck. [26] The bell was contributed to the Japanese war effort in 1940 but ended up on a scrap heap in Yokosuka. Sailors from the USS Boston (CA-69) salvaged the bell after World War II, and offered it to the city of Boston in 1945. In 1953, Japanese officials presented the bell to Boston as a symbol of peace. [27]
Across from the Forsyth Dental Institute and Museum of Fine Arts on Forsyth Way, originally called the Huntington Avenue Entrance to The Fens, this is a large red granite monument and white granite statue of John Endecott. The statue is a standing portrayal of John Endecott dressed in early colonial attire, consisting of a jacket with a wide, square collar, knee breeches, buckle shoes, and a long cape. He holds his hat down at his side in his right hand. The sculpture rests on a square base that extends from a large granite wall with the inscription "JOHN ENDECOTT 1588–1665". A low granite bench surrounds the base of the wall.
According to inscriptions on one side of the monument, it was designed by Architect Ralph Weld Gray, and the statue was sculpted by Carl Paul Jennewein in 1936. The rear of the monument features a large inscription, "Bequest George Augustus Peabody Esquire of Danvers, Massachusetts". The main inscription features the seal of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the quote "STRONG, VALIANT JOHN WILT THOU MARCH ON, AND TAKE UP STATION FIRST, CHRIST CAL'D HATH THEE, HIS SOLDIER BE, AND FAIL NOT OF THY TRUST -EDWARD JOHNSON 1654".
Created by the George Robert White Fund in 1948, this is a grouping of three war memorials arranged around a circle, adjacent to the Keller Rose Garden, the Agassiz Bridge, and a concert grove that overlooks two gatehouses across the Muddy River.
This World War II memorial features a granite monument designed by architect Tito Cascieri. It is composed of a plinth stage and lectern backed by a semi-circular wall, with names set in bronze tablets. A large bronze statue of an angel sculpted by John F. Paramino sits atop the memorial, along with an obelisk capped with bronze stars. It is the oldest and largest of the three memorials on the site, with the Korean and Vietnam war memorials flanking it. The lectern has a plaque, added during the 1990s, rededicating the entire memorial as Veterans Memorial Park and honoring Sergeant Charles Andrew MacGillivary, a World War II Congressional Medal of Honor recipient who enlisted in Boston.
The Korean War Memorial is a small installation, compared to the World War II memorial nearby. This memorial has a stone plaza area, with a map of the country of Korea embedded in it. Flanking the map are two stone slabs for use as benches. The memorial is a squarish monument that has three columns with names engraved in them. On top is the word, "Korea" and the years, "1950–1953."
The Vietnam War Memorial is a small installation, compared to the World War II memorial nearby. This memorial has a stone plaza area, with a map of the country of Vietnam embedded in it. Flanking the map are two stone slabs for use as benches. The memorial is a squarish monument that has three columns with names engraved in them. On top is the word, "Vietnam" and the years, "1962–1975."
The Victory Gardens are now named after Richard D. Parker, one of the original organizers of the garden, who gardened there until his death in 1975. The Victory Gardens in the Fenway are one of only two remaining victory gardens in the U.S. dating back to World War II, during which President Franklin Roosevelt encouraged Americans to grow their own vegetables. The City of Boston set up 49 areas to grow gardens, including plots on Boston Common and Boston Public Garden. The Fenway Victory Gardens were established in 1942. These gardens are a central part of the Fenway community and are well known to gardeners across the country. Residents use the plots to grow vegetables or flowers.
A passion for public rose gardens swept the country in the early 20th century. In 1930, landscape architect Arthur Shurcliff added a circular formal rose garden and fountain opposite the Museum of Fine Arts where the general public as well as rose enthusiasts could learn about rose culture and enjoy the flowers. The garden was expanded in 1933 when the rectangular section was built. At the south end of the rectangular portion of the garden is a statue that is a copy of the famous El Desconsol which was a gift to the City of Boston by Barcelona, Spain. In 1975, the garden was named the James P. Kelleher Rose Garden to honor the Boston Parks and Recreation Department's Superintendent of Horticulture. By the late 20th century, The Kelleher Rose Garden was in decline and needed a complete restoration. In 2001, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, in cooperation with the Boston Parks and Recreation Department, convened landscape architects, horticultural specialists, and rosarians to develop a master plan for its renewal. Paths and planting beds were recut according to the original plans; the soil was rejuvenated and new turf laid. An irrigation system was installed and new signs were placed to help visitors learn from the garden. The restoration was completed in 2008. In 2014 the Emerald Necklace Conservancy completed restoration of the original ornamental fountain and had the descendant of the original sculpture manufacturer replicate missing ornamental cherub statues.
As part of Arthur Shurcliff's alterations to The Fens, an athletic track and field was constructed in 1923. Two massive cast stone bleachers were completed in 1926 followed shortly in 1928 by a field house designed by William D. Austin. The original field house was demolished in the 1980s, due to neglect, and replaced with a simple Gothic styled storage structure. The 420m[ citation needed ] athletic track and field was later dedicated as the Joseph Lee Playground. At some point two baseball diamonds were added. One of them is dedicated to baseball player and humanitarian Roberto Clemente with a cast stone monument featuring a brass relief & dedication plaque. The other was dedicated to neighborhood residents Brian and David Cobe in 1984 with a bronze plaque inset into a Roxbury puddingstone boulder adjacent to the diamond. Sometime in the 1970s two basketball courts were also added alongside the playground and dedicated in honor of Jim Bradley. In 2010, as part of a public-private partnership between the City of Boston and Emmanuel College, the field was extensively renovated to collegiate standards, which necessitated the demolition of one of the stone bleachers.
Back Bay is an officially recognized neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, built on reclaimed land in the Charles River basin. Construction began in 1859, as the demand for luxury housing exceeded the availability in the city at the time, and the area was fully built by around 1900. It is most famous for its rows of Victorian brownstone homes—considered one of the best preserved examples of 19th-century urban design in the United States—as well as numerous architecturally significant individual buildings, and cultural institutions such as the Boston Public Library, and Boston Architectural College. Initially conceived as a residential-only area, commercial buildings were permitted from around 1890, and Back Bay now features many office buildings, including the John Hancock Tower, Boston's tallest skyscraper. It is also considered a fashionable shopping destination and home to several major hotels.
Fenway–Kenmore is an officially recognized neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. While it is considered one neighborhood for administrative purposes, it is composed of numerous distinct sections that, in casual conversation, are almost always referred to as "Fenway", "the Fenway", "Kenmore Square", or "Kenmore". Furthermore, the Fenway neighborhood is divided into two sub-neighborhoods commonly referred to as East Fenway/Symphony and West Fenway.
Longwood station is a light rail station on the MBTA Green Line D branch, located on Chapel Street in Brookline, Massachusetts, on the border with Boston, just north of Longwood Avenue. It serves the Longwood Medical Area, the Colleges of the Fenway, and residential areas of Brookline. The station opened with the rest of the line on July 4, 1959. After renovation work completed in 2009, Longwood station is accessible from both Chapel Street and Riverway Park.
The Public Garden, also known as Boston Public Garden, is a large park in the heart of Boston, Massachusetts, adjacent to Boston Common. It is a part of the Emerald Necklace system of parks and is bounded by Charles Street and Boston Common to the east, Beacon Street and Beacon Hill to the north, Arlington Street and Back Bay to the west, and Boylston Street to the south. The Public Garden was the first public botanical garden in America.
The Emerald Necklace consists of a 1,100-acre chain of parks linked by parkways and waterways in Boston and Brookline, Massachusetts. It was designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, and gets its name from the way the planned chain appears to hang from the "neck" of the Boston peninsula. In 1989, the Emerald Necklace was designated as a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission.
Olmsted Park is a linear park in Boston and Brookline, Massachusetts, and a part of Boston's Emerald Necklace of connected parks and parkways. Originally named Leverett Park, in 1900 it was renamed to honor its designer, Frederick Law Olmsted.
Commonwealth Avenue is a major street in the cities of Boston and Newton, Massachusetts. It begins at the western edge of the Boston Public Garden, and continues west through the neighborhoods of the Back Bay, Kenmore Square, Boston University, Allston, Brighton and Chestnut Hill. It continues as part of Route 30 through Newton until it crosses the Charles River at the border of the town of Weston.
The Charles River Esplanade of Boston, Massachusetts, is a state-owned park situated in the Back Bay area of the city, on the south bank of the Charles River Basin.
Riverway, also referred to as "the Riverway," is a parkway in Boston, Massachusetts. The parkway is a link in the Emerald Necklace system of parks and parkways designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in the 1890s. Starting at the Landmark Center end of the Back Bay Fens, the parkway follows the path of the Muddy River south to Olmsted Park across a stone bridge over Route 9 near Brookline Village. The road and its associated park form Boston's western border with neighboring Brookline and are popular with nearby local residents in both municipalities.
Fenway, commonly referred to as The Fenway, is a mostly one-way, one- to three-lane parkway that runs along the southern and eastern edges of the Back Bay Fens in the Fenway–Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, in the east-central part of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. As part of the Emerald Necklace park system mainly designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in the late 19th century, the Fenway, along with the Back Bay Fens and Park Drive, connects the Commonwealth Avenue Mall to the Riverway. For its entire length, the parkway travels along the Muddy River and is part of the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston. Like others in the park system, it is maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.
The Landmark Center or 401 Park Building in Boston, Massachusetts is a commercial center situated in a limestone and brick art deco building built in 1928 for Sears, Roebuck and Company. It features a 200-foot-tall (61 m) tower and, as Sears Roebuck and Company Mail Order Store, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated as a Boston Landmark in 1989.
Boylston Street is a major east–west thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts and its western suburbs. The street begins in Boston's Chinatown neighborhood, forms the southern border of the Boston Public Garden and Boston Common, runs through Back Bay and Boston's Fenway neighborhood, merges into Brookline Ave and then Washington Street, emerging again contiguous with Route 9 out to where it crosses Route 128, after which it becomes Worcester Street.
The Muddy River is a series of brooks and ponds that runs through sections of Boston's Emerald Necklace, including along the south boundary of Brookline, Massachusetts. The river, which is narrower than most waterways designated as rivers in the United States, is a protected public recreation area surrounded by parks and hiking trails, managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.
The Fenway-Boylston Street District is a historic district encompassing a series of predominantly residential buildings lining The Fenway in the Fenway–Kenmore of Boston, Massachusetts. Developed beginning in the 1890s, the area is emblematic of Boston's upper-class residential development of the period, with architect-designed houses built for some of the city's leading families. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The Stony Brook Gatehouse is a former gatehouse in The Fens in Boston, located next to The Fenway east of Forsyth Way. It formerly controlled flow from the Stony Brook into the Muddy River. The structure was designed around 1881 by Henry Hobson Richardson, who also designed several bridges in the park. The building features a slate roof with distinctive wooden beams and walls of smooth stones of varying cuts. The red mortar used between the stone is similar to that of many of Richardson's other works. A near-identical companion building, designed by Richardson's successors Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, was constructed in 1905 when the Stony Brook culvert was enlarged.
Brookline Avenue is a principal urban artery in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It runs from Kenmore Square in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood, forming a 1.5-mile straight line to its other terminus at Washington Street in the Brookline Village neighborhood of Brookline, Massachusetts. The Landmark Center, Fenway Park, Emmanuel College, Longwood Medical and Academic Area and Kenmore Square are sites along its length.
Park Drive is a mostly one-way, two-lane parkway in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston that runs along the northern and western edges of the Back Bay Fens before ending at Mountfort Street. As part of the Emerald Necklace park system mainly designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in the late 19th century, Park Drive, along with the Back Bay Fens and the Fenway, connects the Commonwealth Avenue Mall and Boylston Street to Beacon Street and the Riverway. For a portion of its length, the parkway runs along the Muddy River and is part of the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston's Muddy River Reservation. Like others in the park system, it is maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Stony Brook is a 8.5-mile (13.7 km)-long subterranean river in Boston. The largest tributary stream of the lower Charles River, it runs mostly through conduits. Stony Brook originates at Turtle Pond in the Stony Brook Reservation and flows through Hyde Park, Roslindale, Jamaica Plain, and Roxbury. It empties into the Charles River Basin just upstream of the Harvard Bridge. Stony Brook is fed by four tributaries, all of which are partially or entirely in conduits as well.
Philip G. Bowker Overpass is a steel beam bridge with a suspended deck carrying The Charlesgate over Commonwealth Avenue, Beacon Street, and Interstate 90. It connects Boylston Street to Storrow Drive. It runs parallel to the Muddy River. In 2011, there was talk about tearing down the bridge and widening local streets as some consider the bridge to be an eyesore, as well as the fact that it bisects a portion of the Emerald Necklace.
The Ipswich Street line was a streetcar line in Boston and Brookline, Massachusetts. The line ran on Boylston Street and Ipswich Street in the Fenway–Kenmore neighborhood, and on Brookline Avenue through what is now the Longwood Medical Area to Brookline Village.
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