Olmsted's Park System in Boston

Abstract

Today the essentials of Olmsted's park system iIi. Boston survive; although suffering degradations imposed by changed social conditions and by thoughtlessly designed expressways. Highways have become the principal factor altering the relationship between' man's open spaces and nature's. The Fenway, the Riverway, the Jamaica Way-segments of interconnected park roads which at the slow speeds of the nineteenth-century could each be experienced individually-gradually coalesced into one continuous stream of fast-moving traffic. A route designed for pleasure became part of a modern transportation system facilitating the inner-city worker's escape to the suburbs. At the same time the spatial system has benefited from having superimposed upon it developments that belong peculiarly to the twentieth-century and to a new pedestrian scale. Upon the old spine has been grafted a series of dense, complex developments; the scope of the open space system has been extended eastward through the historic town to meet the waterfront. A 1973 study has investigated some of the conditions that currently mar the Olmsted system. Jamaica Pond and sections within Brookline are most heavily used and are comparatively well maintained; the Arboretum is a model of good management. However, in other areas rats are often the most prevalent form of wildlife. The path network is poorly maintained; the original picturesque light fixtures are inoperable or destroyed; statues and monuments show the result of long neglect. Within the 115 acres of the Back Bay Fens, once the gem of the whole system, pollution and road noise destroy the park atmosphere. Somewhere along the way the original vision was also lost what followed occurs wherever city governments forget that parks are fragile creations and need constant preservation and upkeep. Broad social developments have played their part-new urban trends, new forms of transportation, changing neighborhoods and life styles. Yet if the original concept of the park system had remained vivid, a new generation could surely not have permitted such incongruities as the barrier of the interchange at the entrance of the fens; or-a smaller but no less excusable defect-the Sears, Roebuck parking lot that breaks the greenbelt's continuity. What has happened to the Boston park system does not warrant the conclusion that this form of open space system is obsolete. The city possesses a major resource created by earlier generations. As with all of citizen's achievements, it can be saved and renewed. It will be a lasting benefit to Bostonians and also an example to other cities with a similar heritage.