Atlas of the city of Boston, Boston proper and Back Bay : plate 22
Atlas of the city of Boston, Boston proper and Back Bay
Item Information
Title:
Atlas of the city of Boston, Boston proper and Back Bay : plate 22
Description:
Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted began his first Boston project in 1878, when the Boston Park Commissioners hired him to design the Back Bay Park (now the Fens), both as a sanitary improvement to the polluted and flood-prone Stony Brook and Muddy River, and as a public recreation ground. Charlesgate, as it appears here, was intended as the meeting place of the Fens and the Charles River, although the mid-20th century construction of Storrow Drive and the Bowker Overpass divided them for over 60 years. Today, the Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Department of Transportation are working on a Charlesgate Greenway, which will reconnect the Fens and the Charles River Basin.