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Description.

The plan of this park contemplates the extension of sundry streets, as follows:

Huntington avenue in a straight line, deflected from its present western terminus to Tremont street at its junction with Francis street, in parts bounding and crossing the park.

Boylston street, in a straight line to Brookline avenue, also in parts bounding and crossing the park. Commonwealth avenue, in a straight line to and across the park, thence by a deflected line parallel with the Boston and Albany Railroad to the junction of Beacon street with Brookline and Brighton avenues.

The main body of the park lies between Boylston street and Huntington avenue, as extended, they forming respectively the northern and southern boundaries, and between projected new streets on the east and west. The average length of this section is 3,800 feet, with a width of 680 feet. Its peculiar features, consisting chiefly of water and marsh, may advantageously be preserved in its improvement, and so treated as to produce the effect of a lagoon landscape, combining economy and novelty in construction.

Its northern extension, from Boylston to Beacon street, is 400 feet wide, thence with a reduced width to Charles-river Embankment. A bridge in the centre of this section will be thrown over the Boston and Albany Railroad to connect it with the first-mentioned part.

The southern extension, between Huntington avenue and Tremont street, averages 200 feet wide, through which roads and paths will pass to Tremont street, thence there will be a passage 60 feet wide, to the base of the Parkerhill ledges, up which a flight of steps will rise to the Parkerhill Park above. The entire area of the park, exclusive of crossing streets, is 85 acres.

The peculiar form and purposes of this park can best be understood by reference to the accompanying map.

The shape is not such as would have been selected had the beauty of the park itself been the chief or controlling motive. Great and increasing anxiety, as you are aware, is felt by the authorities, the medical profession, and citizens at large, in regard to the present and future condition of the Back Bay flats, as affecting the general healthfulness of the densely populated parts of the city lying to the eastward. Temporary expedients have, for several years past, been resorted to, to mitigate the growing nuisance.

The "Report upon the Establishment of Public Parks," elsewhere referred to, especially directs attention to this

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locality as likely to affect, for good or ill, the sanitary condition, not only of the immediate neighborhood, but of a large part of the city. Keeping in mind this consideration, as well as the high cost for lands, and expense for improvements, the Commissioners have found it to be most expedient to select this long and comparatively narrow location reaching from Charles river on the north to Huntington avenue and Tremont street on the south, and covering the city on that side by a broad open belt of land and water.

The Report on the Sewerage of Boston (City Doc. No. 3, 1876, page 15) refers to this Back Bay region as follows:

"Between Dorchester bay and Charles river we have a surface a thousand rods long, about half as deep at its widest part, and only six feet above extreme high tide. If this territory should be largely occupied by houses of an inferior class, thorough sewerage, at best a difficult matter, would be made even more so.

"A reservation of land, therefore, especially with an open waterbasin, as proposed by the late Governor Andrew, could not fail to be of great benefit to the city, in a sanitary point of view.”

This belt of land and water forever to be kept open, over which the prevailing winds of summer must pass before entering the town, cannot but have a good sanitary influence. upon all that part of the old city lying to the eastward. A sufficiently broad opening has been made to Charles river to insure the free circulation of air at the northern end.

The plan for improving this location, which appears on the map, is offered as an illustration only.

While sanitary considerations have been the primary motive in making this location, such as may be called artistic have not been lost sight of. A bridge over the B. & A. R. R. will be a necessity, and it cannot be otherwise than an awkward feature. By placing it in the centre of the northern extension, and by judicious planting, it will interfere but little with the general effect; as the roads and paths will be mostly on the outer edges of the park, the views to and over Charles river, and of Parker hill, will not be seriously obstructed by it. Unpromising as all this region is, it is certainly not so bad as was the space now occupied by the Public Garden a few years ago, and it can be transformed from its present dangerous and unsightly condition into a healthful and attractive form, at a reasonable cost.

In view of the prospective growth of the city, the extension of Huntington avenue ought not to be long delayed, and if laid out somewhat as proposed will take rank among the most important new streets. Boylston street as extended will be a thoroughfare to Longwood, and probably be used

as the route for street-car tracks. The Commonwealthavenue malls supply the appropriate link between the Common and Public Garden and this park. East and West Chester Park, the chief cross avenue of the city, will connect Charles-river Embankment and Back Bay Park with the South Bay Park.

Other streets will probably be required to cross the park from east to west, but they, as well as the general laying out of the neighborhood, should be located by the Board of Street Commissioners.

PARKER-HILL PARK.

Boundaries. Beginning on Tremont street, at the dividing line between land of Paul D. Wallis and E. S. Rand, Jr., Trustees, and land of J. J. Williams, and running southerly by said line, about 120 feet, to the top line of the stone quarry; thence running easterly by said line, about 1,200 feet, to the extension of the extreme easterly line of estate of said Wallis and Rand, Trustees; thence southerly by said line, about 400 feet, to land of Ralph Crooker; thence easterly by said land of Crooker, about 65 feet thence southerly through estates of said Crooker and Thomas Thatcher Heirs, about 240 feet, to land of Anna Parker Heirs; thence northwesterly by the northerly line of the proposed Parker-hill Park-way, through land of said Parker Heirs, and Wallis and Rand, Trustees, about 1,790 feet, to Tremont street; thence easterly by said Tremont street, about 200 feet, to the point of beginning, and containing about 16 acres.

Description.

This park, at present an unimproved pasture, with a few scattered trees, is a plateau above the Tremont-street quarries, on the northern slope, and near the base of the hill. It is accessible by the park-way of the same name, and by entrances to be made on its eastern border, and will be a convenient pleasure and play-ground for the neighboring population of the Roxbury district. Its surfaces are undulating, pleasing to the eye, and not too steep for easy promenades, with an elevation sufficient to command extensive views of the city and adjacent country. It can be made available for immediate use with but trifling expenditures for improvements.

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