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. [1]
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. [1]
The limited-access parkway Storrow Drive forms the southern boundary of the park, with the Charles River marking the northern edge. In the park are walkways, statuary, the Hatch Memorial Shell performance stage, playgrounds, ballfields, and Community Boating. The Esplanade comprises part of the Charles River Reservation state park. The Esplanade was designated as a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission in 2009. [2]
The Esplanade was originally dedicated as the Boston Embankment in 1910. The Embankment was created as part of the construction of the 1910 Charles River Dam Bridge (today the site of the Museum of Science). The parkland was criticized for its lack of shade trees, refreshment stands, recreation facilities, transportation utility, and visitors. [3] It extended to Charlesgate (upstream of the Harvard Bridge) and connected with Frederick Law Olmsted's Emerald Necklace system of parks and open spaces. To address criticism, trees, a refreshment pavilion, and concerts were brought to the park. [3]
The Esplanade went through a major expansion from 1928 to 1936, widening and lengthening the park land. These improvements were aided by a $1 million donation from Helen Osborne Storrow, in memory of her husband James. The Storrow Memorial Embankment, designed by Arthur Shurcliff, added the first lagoon, boat landings, plazas, playgrounds, and the Music Oval, [3] where a temporary bandshell was placed. The summer of 1929 was the first year Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops performed on the Esplanade.
In 1941, the construction of the Hatch Memorial Shell gave the Pops, and a wide range of other artists and performers, a first-class stage for popular summer events. In the 2000s, half a million people attend the Boston Pops concert and fireworks display held there every Independence Day. The Hatch Shell also hosts free public concerts and movies, and special events—walkathons, races, and festivals such as Earth Day—that draw hundreds of thousands of additional spectators each year.
Sailing on the Charles began in the 1930s, and the boathouse on the Esplanade was built in 1941. [4] Organized in 1946, Community Boating was the country's first public boating program. For a modest fee, thousands of people have learned to sail on the Charles River.
The next major change to the Esplanade began in 1949, with the construction of Storrow Drive. To make up for park land lost to the new road, additional islands including multiple paths were built along the Esplanade, also designed by Arthur Shurcliff and his son Sydney. [3] In the 1960s, the Esplanade was linked to Herter Park in Brighton, and other upstream parks, with the construction of the Dr. Paul Dudley White Bike Path. This 18-mile (29 km) loop travels along the entire basin on both the north and south banks of the river, and makes it especially suitable for biking, inline skating, and running.
The Esplanade is isolated from the nearby Boston neighborhoods by Storrow Drive, a high-speed limited-access road protected by perimeter fencing. A series of eight pedestrian overpasses has been built to connect to the rest of the city, plus two additional bridges at the extreme ends of the park. Listed in order from downstream to upstream, they are: [5] [6]
The Charles River, sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles, is an 80-mile-long (129 km) river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles back on itself several times and travels through 23 cities and towns before reaching the Atlantic Ocean. The indigenous Massachusett named it Quinobequin, meaning "meandering" or "meandering still water".
The Boston Pops is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart.
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.
Charles Eliot was an American landscape architect. Known for pioneering principles of regional planning, naturalistic systems approach to landscape architecture, and laying the groundwork for conservancies across the world. Instrumental in the formation of The Trustees of Reservations, the world's first land trust, playing a central role in shaping the Boston Metropolitan Park System, designing a number of public and private landscapes, and wrote prolifically on a variety of topics.
The Back Bay Fens, often called The Fens, is a parkland and urban wild in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1879. 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.
Arthur Asahel Shurcliff was an American landscape architect. After over 30 years of success as a practicing landscape architect and town planner, in 1928 he was called upon by John D. Rockefeller Jr., and the Boston architectural firm of Perry, Shaw & Hepburn to serve as Chief Landscape Architect for the restoration and recreation of the gardens, landscape, and town planning of Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, a position he held until his retirement in 1941. It was the largest and most important commission of his career.
The Boston University Bridge, originally the Cottage Farm Bridge and commonly referred to as the BU Bridge, is a steel truss through arch bridge with a suspended deck carrying Route 2 over the Charles River, connecting the Boston University campus to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The Edward A. Hatch Memorial Shell, commonly referred to as the Hatch Shell, is an outdoor concert venue on the Charles River Esplanade in the Back Bay section of Boston, Massachusetts. Built in 1939–1940, it is one of the city's prominent examples of Art Deco architecture.
Memorial Drive, colloquially referred to as Mem Drive, is a 3.9-mile (6.3 km) parkway along the north bank of the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.
The Charles River Reservation is a 17-mile-long (27 km) urban preserve and public recreation area located along the banks of the Charles River in Boston, Cambridge, Watertown, and Newton, Massachusetts. The reservation is managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Storrow Drive, officially James Jackson Storrow Memorial Drive, is a major crosstown parkway in Boston, Massachusetts, running east–west along the southern bank of the Charles River. It is restricted to cars; trucks and buses are not permitted on it, while pedestrian access is available via walking paths on the Charles River side of the road. Boston drivers use the route for quick access to downtown locations.
The Charles River Reservation Parkways are parkways that run along either side of the Charles River in eastern Massachusetts. The roads are contained within the Charles River Reservation and the Upper Charles River Reservation, and fall within a number of communities in the greater Boston metropolitan area. The Charles River parks extend from the Charles River Dam, where the Charles empties into Boston Harbor, to Riverdale Park in the West Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. Most of the roadways within the parks are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a unit, although Storrow Drive and Memorial Drive are listed as part of the Charles River Basin Historic District.
Community Boating, Inc. (CBI) is a private not-for-profit corporation founded in 1937 to teach sailing to those who would not typically have access. Located on the Charles River Esplanade between the Hatch Shell and the Longfellow Bridge, it is the oldest public sailing organization in the United States. To date, they have had over half a million sailors use their organization.
Soldiers Field Road is a major crosstown parkway in Boston, Massachusetts, running west to east from U.S. Route 20 in the northwest corner of Brighton to the Boston University Bridge. It follows the course of the Charles River and also passes by the campuses of Harvard University and Boston University. The road is named for the area south of the road on a bend in the Charles River. On June 5, 1890, Henry Lee Higginson presented Harvard College a gift of 31 acres of land, which he called Soldiers Field, given in honor of his friends who died in the Civil War: James Savage, Jr., Charles Russell Lowell, Edward Barry Dalton, Stephen George Perkins, James Jackson Lowell, and Robert Gould Shaw. This land later became the home of Harvard Crimson athletics.
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.
The Arthur Fiedler Memorial by Ralph Helmick is installed along the Charles River Esplanade, in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
The James J. and Helen Storrow Memorial is a memorial commemorating James J. Storrow and Helen Storrow, installed along Boston's Charles River Esplanade, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Installed in 1948, the memorial features a bronze sculpture on a granite platform with an engraved map of Boston. The couple's only son, James Jackson Storrow III, attended the unveiling ceremony.
The Arthur Fiedler Footbridge is a wheelchair accessible footbridge named after Arthur Fiedler in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
The Edwin Upton Curtis Memorial is a memorial commemorating Edwin Upton Curtis, installed along Boston's Charles River Esplanade, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The memorial features two large urns, and was originally installed near Clarendon Street during 1923–1924 before being relocation to their current position near the Hatch Shell.
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