Sketch plan showing the existing and proposed public reservations upon the banks of the Charles between Waltham line and Craigie Bridge

Exhibited: "Breathing Room: Mapping Boston's Green Spaces" organized by the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library, 2018.

March, 1894.

"Plan No. 3."

Inset of key map.

From: Massachusetts House document 775, 1894.

Reprinted from the report of the Joint Board upon the improvement of Charles River for 1894.

Olmsted, Olmsted & Eliot.

The Charles River was once a tidal estuary. In the 19th century, its basin was dammed for mills and encircled by factories, prisons, and slaughterhouses, all of which polluted the slow-moving river. By the 1890s, local residents demanded a change, and in 1893 the newly created Metropolitan Park Commission and the State Board of Health tasked the firm of Olmsted, Olmsted, and Eliot with improving the river. This map reflects Charles Eliot’s vision of tree-lined promenades, playgrounds, gymnasia, and performance spaces. The Charles River Dam, completed in 1908, made Eliot’s dream a reality, and transformed the stinking tidal estuary into a scenic waterfront park.