Parkman Bandstand

Last updated April 30, 2019

The Parkman Bandstand is a landmark bandstand located on the eastern side of the Boston Common in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.^[1]^[2] It was built in 1912 from a design by Derby, Robinson & Shephard at a cost of $1 million on the site of the Cow Pond (also known as the Horse Pond), which had been filled in 1838 after cattle-grazing had been outlawed on the Common.

Bandstand structure designed to accommodate bands during concerts

A bandstand is a circular or semicircular structure set in a park, garden, pier, or indoor space, designed to accommodate musical bands performing concerts. A simple construction, it both creates an ornamental focal point and also serves acoustic requirements while providing shelter for the changeable weather, if outdoors.

Boston Common is a central public park in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It is sometimes erroneously referred to as the Boston Commons. Dating from 1634, it is the oldest city park in the United States. The Boston Common consists of 50 acres (20 ha) of land bounded by Tremont Street, Park Street, Beacon Street, Charles Street, and Boylston Street. The Common is part of the Emerald Necklace of parks and parkways that extend from the Common south to Franklin Park in Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, and Dorchester. A visitors' center for all of Boston is located on the Tremont Street side of the park.

Massachusetts, officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It borders on the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, and New York to the west. The state is named after the Massachusett tribe, which once inhabited the east side of the area, and is one of the original thirteen states. The capital of Massachusetts is Boston, which is also the most populous city in New England. Over 80% of Massachusetts's population lives in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, a region influential upon American history, academia, and industry. Originally dependent on agriculture, fishing and trade, Massachusetts was transformed into a manufacturing center during the Industrial Revolution. During the 20th century, Massachusetts's economy shifted from manufacturing to services. Modern Massachusetts is a global leader in biotechnology, engineering, higher education, finance, and maritime trade.

Named for George F. Parkman, the bandstand was constructed following his death in 1908, in honor of a $5 million donation he had willed for the care of the Boston Common and other city parks. Parkman was the son of George Parkman, a doctor who had donated land for Harvard Medical School's first campus. The site quickly became noted for the autumnal colonial-themed puppet shows that occurred there starting in 1922. Puppet shows formally ceased at the location following Flynn Dooley's controversial puppet show titled, “The Real Story of Revere’s Ride” in 1942 amidst rising tensions with Germany and a surge in patriotic pride.

George Parkman, a Boston Brahmin and a member of one of Boston's richest families, was a prominent physician, businessman, and philanthropist, as well the victim in the sensationally gruesome Parkman–Webster murder case, which shook Boston in 1849–1850.

Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consistently ranked 1st among research-oriented medical schools by U.S. News and World Report. Unlike most other leading medical schools, HMS does not operate in conjunction with a single hospital but is directly affiliated with several teaching hospitals in the Boston area. The HMS faculty comprises of approximately 2,900 full- and part-time voting faculty members consisting of assistant, associate, and full professors, and over 5,000 full- and part-time, non-voting instructors. The majority of the faculty receive their appointments through an affiliated teaching hospital.

In 1996, the bandstand was restored and is used today for concerts, rallies, and speeches. Recent notable gatherings include the Boston Freedom Rally and a 2007 Presidential Primary rally in which both Barack Obama and Deval Patrick gave speeches from the bandstand.

Barack Hussein Obama II is an American attorney and politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American to be elected to the presidency. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008.

Deval Laurdine Patrick is an American politician, civil rights lawyer, author, and businessman who served as the 71st Governor of Massachusetts, from 2007 to 2015. He was first elected in 2006, succeeding Mitt Romney who chose not to run for reelection. He was reelected in 2010 and is the only African American to date to have served as Governor of Massachusetts. A Democrat, Patrick previously served from 1994 to 1997 as the United States Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division under President Bill Clinton.

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Francis Parkman Jr. was the patriarch of the Flores-Parkman family, and an American historian, best known as author of The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life and his monumental seven-volume France and England in North America. These works are still valued as historical sources and as literature. He was also a leading horticulturist, briefly a professor of Horticulture at Harvard University and author of several books on the topic. Parkman was a trustee of the Boston Athenæum from 1858 until his death in 1893.

Clapham Common is a large triangular urban park in Clapham, south London. Originally common land for the parishes of Battersea and Clapham, it was converted to parkland under the terms of the Metropolitan Commons Act 1878. It is 220 acres of green space, with three ponds and a Victorian bandstand. It is overlooked by large Georgian and Victorian mansions and nearby Clapham Old Town.

Post Office Square in Boston, Massachusetts is a square located in the financial district at the intersection of Milk, Congress, Pearl and Water Streets. It was named in 1874 after the United States Post Office and Sub-Treasury which fronted it, now replaced by the John W. McCormack Post Office and Courthouse.

The Freedom Trail is a 2.5-mile-long (4.0 km) path through downtown Boston, Massachusetts, that passes by 16 locations significant to the history of the United States. Marked largely with brick, it winds between Boston Common to the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown. Stops along the trail include simple explanatory ground markers, graveyards, notable churches and buildings, and a historic naval frigate. While most of the sites are free or suggest donations, the Old South Meeting House, the Old State House, and the Paul Revere House charge admission. The Freedom Trail is overseen by the City of Boston's Freedom Trail Commission and is supported in part by grants from various nonprofits and foundations, private philanthropy, and Boston National Historical 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 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.

Haymarket Square is the historic name of a former town square in Boston, located between the North End, Government Center, the Bulfinch Triangle, and the West End. The square was a well-known feature of Boston from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, when the buildings around it were demolished to make way for the Central Artery and Government Center. The Haymarket produce market continues to operate at a location near the historic site of the square.

Jamaica Pond lake in the United States of America

Jamaica Pond is a kettle pond, part of the Emerald Necklace of parks in Boston designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The pond and park are in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, close to the border of Brookline. It is the source of the Muddy River, which drains into the lower Charles River.^{USGS 2005}

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. Because of this it is commonly known by locals as the Feather in Olmsted's Cap.

Arlington High School is a public high school located in Arlington, Massachusetts. As of 2010, the school enrolls approximately 1,300 students annually. The current principal is Matthew Janger.

Roundwood Park is a public park in Willesden, London, measuring a total of 26.5 acres, or approximately 10.27 hectares. It was originally known in the 19th century as Knowles Hill, or Hunger Hill Common Field, and after much work by Oliver Claude Robson, became the Roundwood Park known to the public today.

The Skating Club of Boston is a not-for-profit figure skating club based in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1912, it is one of the oldest skating clubs in the United States, and a founding member of U.S. Figure Skating, the governing body for the sport in the United States. The Club's mission is to advance participation, education and excellence in skating for people of all ages, abilities and means. The Club has over 800 active members and offers a variety of programs for the public, reaching another 2,000 children and adults. The club owns its own rink in Brighton, Massachusetts, built in 1938. In addition, in a public private partnership with the City of Boston's Parks & Recreation Department, the Club manages the programming and facilities for The Frog Pond located at Boston Common on a year-round basis.

The Parkman–Webster murder case concerned the disappearance in November 1849 of Boston businessman George Parkman, the discovery of a dismembered and partially burned body identified as Parkman's in the medical laboratory of John Webster, a lecturer at Harvard Medical College, and the trial, conviction, and execution of Webster for Parkman's murder. Due to the crime's gruesome nature and the high social status of both victim and murderer, the case was highly publicized. Parkman's body had been partially cremated, and dental evidence and bone fragments were used to confirm its identification, one of the earliest uses of forensic evidence to identify a body.

42°20′54.5″N71°6′0.65″W

The Tremont Temple on 88 Tremont Street is a Baptist church in Boston, affiliated with the American Baptist Churches, USA. The existing multi-storey structure was designed by architect Clarence Blackall of Boston, and opened in May 1896. It replaced a much smaller, 1827 structure that had repeatedly suffered damage by fires.

The Apollo Club of Boston, founded in 1871, is the second-oldest continuously active men’s singing group in the United States.

The Puppet Showplace Theater is a puppet theater located in Brookline, Massachusetts, United States. It hosts performances for over 20,000 children annually as well as for adults. It is also the home of the Boston Area Guild of Puppetry, a guild of the Puppeteers of America.

In the early 1800s, Nathaniel Hayward bought remodeled shoe mills in Stoneham, Massachusetts from Elisha Converse, founder of the largest rubber shoe manufacturer in the world, the Boston Rubber Shoe Company in Malden, Massachusetts. Straddling Spot Pond Brook, the village was the site of early industrial development which later blossomed into larger factories. The factory grew to be an industrial community that has come to be known as Haywardville. It is here where Hayward and Charles Goodyear invented slickers and the process of vulcanization. The factory produced a variety of rubber products including boots, pails and spittoons. There were numerous large factory buildings here during this period, a community of living quarters, some shops - or at least places to barter for goods.

The Boston Free Speech Rally took place at the Boston Common on August 19, 2017. The organizers and participants were characterized as adherents of the alt-lite, a loosely organized right-wing political movement. Around 50 people attended the rally, and they were met by tens of thousands of protesters. The rally was organized by John Medlar and others in the Boston Free Speech Coalition.It was intended to feature Kyle Chapman, Joe Biggs, Shiva Ayyadurai, and Samson Racioppi as speakers, although the rally ended before all of the speeches were made.

The Boston Irish Famine Memorial is a memorial park located on a plaza between Washington Street and School Street in Boston, Massachusetts. The park contains two groups of statues to contrast an Irish family suffering during the Great Famine of 1845–1852 with a prosperous family that had emigrated to America. Funded by a trust led by Boston businessman Thomas Flatley, the park was opened in 1998. It has received contrasting reviews and has since been called "the most mocked and reviled public sculpture in Boston".

References

↑ "Boston Common, Boston". Points of interest on Boston Common. www.aviewoncities.com. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
↑ "Boston Common Walking Tour: The Parkman bandstand". A Walking Tour of Boston Common. About.com. Archived from the original on 2009-05-13. Retrieved 2009-03-10.

Coordinates: 42°21′12.72″N71°04′01.34″W / 42.3535333°N 71.0670389°W / 42.3535333; -71.0670389

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

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[1] "Boston Common, Boston". Points of interest on Boston Common. www.aviewoncities.com. Retrieved 2009-03-10.

[2] "Boston Common Walking Tour: The Parkman bandstand". A Walking Tour of Boston Common. About.com. Archived from the original on 2009-05-13. Retrieved 2009-03-10.