Park Drive (parkway)

Route map: Bing / Google

Park Drive
Map with Park Drive highlighted in red.
Maintained by	the Department of Conservation and Recreation
East end	Boylston Street
West end	Mountfort Street

Park Drive is a mostly one-way, two-lane parkway in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston that runs along the northern and western edges of the Back Bay Fens before ending at Mountfort Street. As part of the Emerald Necklace park system mainly designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in the late 19th century, Park Drive, along with the Back Bay Fens and the Fenway, connects the Commonwealth Avenue Mall and Boylston Street to Beacon Street and the Riverway. For a portion of its length, the parkway runs along the Muddy River and is part of the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston's Muddy River Reservation. Like others in the park system, it is maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Route description

Park Drive begins near the intersection of Boylston Street and Ipswich Street and heads south with two one-way lanes to Peterborough Street. From there an additional one-way road begins with parallel parking on both sides. It runs on the north side of the flowing traffic and is separated by a grassy tree-lined median. The road continues in this fashion until it reaches the end of the Fens where the parking side merges into the main roadway along with traffic entering from the Fenway on the other side of the Muddy River. A parking lane is created on the right and the road travels with two one-way lanes towards Brookline Avenue. Two more lanes are added as it crosses Brookline Avenue and passes the Landmark Center in Audubon Circle. The two left lanes become left-turn-only and facilitate access to the Riverway and the reverse direction towards the Fenway. The right two lanes continue straight through the intersection and two lanes in the opposite direction join it. After its intersection with Beacon Street, Park Drive loses a lane in each direction and continues for two more blocks as part of Massachusetts Route 2 before ending at Mountfort Street near the Massachusetts Turnpike.^[1]^[2]

Park Drive runs alongside the Muddy River from its beginning at Boylston Street to its intersection with Brookline Avenue.^[1] The Fenway, which is located on the other side of the Back Bay Fens,^[1] allows for continuous travel in the opposite direction of Park Drive. It is accessible from where Park Drive becomes two-way at Brookline Avenue and ends on Boylston Street near where Park Drive begins.^[2]

Background

Park Drive with median separating main road (left) and service road (right).

Easternmost end of Park Drive near Boylston Street.

In 1875, the voters of the City of Boston and the Massachusetts legislature approved the creation of a park commission in order to promote the creation of public parks in the city.^[3] Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect of New York City's Central Park, began to spend an increasing amount of time in the area and was asked by the park commission in the mid-to-late 1870s to be the judge of a 23-entry design competition to build a new park. Olmsted felt that all of the submitted plans were subpar and either did not take into account flood control or focused too much on it and neglected the public park aspect.^[3]^[4] The Muddy River and Stony Brook flowed through the Back Bay Fens (an artificial marshland commonly referred to as the Fens) which were at the time subject to tidal flow, storm flooding, and sewage discharge.^[3] The disappointed park commission then asked Olmsted to be its professional adviser and main landscape architect.^[3] Under his direction, what is now called the Emerald Necklace took shape. He directed the Fens to be dredged, graded, planted, and turned into a seemingly natural salt marsh to absorb and clean the flowing waters.^[5] He then built a series of parks stretching from the Fens near the existing Commonwealth Avenue greenway to Franklin Park some miles away.^[4] The parks were connected to each other by scenic parkways, one of which is Park Drive around the northern and western sides of the Back Bay Fens. Originally Park Drive was named Audubon Road in conjunction with the adjoining Audubon Circle, at the intersection with Beacon Street, in honor of the Audubon Society and the vast avian population within the Olmsted designed Fens. The parkway was renamed Park Drive sometime between 1928 and 1938 when alterations to the Fens resulted in a large part of the artificial marshland being filled for more formal parkland .^[6] As part of the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston, Park Drive is maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), rather than the City of Boston.^[7]

The roadway from Boylston Street to Brookline Avenue opened to traffic on January 3, 1892,^[8] while surfacing of the remainder of the parkway to Mountfort Street was finished by 1895.^[9]

References

1 2 3 "Emerald Necklace Parks" (PDF). The Emerald Necklace Conservancy, National Park Service. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
1 2 "Back Bay Fens Map". Google Maps. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
1 2 3 4 Garvin, Alexander (2002). The American city: what works, what doesn't (2 ed.). McGraw-Hill. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-07-137367-8. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
1 2 Krieger, Alex; David A. Cobb; Amy Turner; David C. Bosse (2001). Mapping Boston. MIT Press. p. 212. ISBN 978-0-262-61173-2. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
↑ Fishman, Robert (2000). The American planning tradition: culture and policy. Woodrow Wilson Center Press. p. 306. ISBN 978-0-943875-96-5. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
↑ DeFlorio, Joshua (June 2007). Incentive Zoning and Environmental Quality in Boston's Fenway Neighborhood (PDF). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. p. 74. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
↑ Pazzanese, Christina (October 26, 2008). "Mixed signals at a tricky intersection". The Boston Globe. Retrieved November 26, 2008.
↑ Jackson, William (1892). Annual report of the Park Department. Boston Park Department. p. 65. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
↑ Jackson, William (1896). Annual report of the Park Department. Boston Park Department. p. 118. Retrieved December 11, 2009. Mountfort Street runs adjacent to the Boston and Albany Railroad right of way that the reference refers to.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Park Drive (parkway).

Emerald Necklace

Arborway Arnold Arboretum The Fens Boston Common Boston Public Garden Commonwealth Avenue Dorchesterway Fenway Franklin Park Jamaica Pond Jamaicaway Olmsted Park Park Drive Riverway

Frederick Law Olmsted Boston, Massachusetts Jamaica Plain Roxbury Brookline Dorchester

Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston

Coastal reservations	Belle Isle Marsh Boston Harbor Islands Castle Island Dorchester Shores Fort Revere Lynn Shore Nahant Beach Nantasket Beach Quincy Shore Revere Beach Rumney Marsh Webb Memorial Weymouth Back River

River reservations	Alewife Brook Charles River Chestnut Hill Cutler Elm Bank Hemlock Gorge Mystic River Neponset River Pope John Paul II Squantum Point Park Upper Charles River

Woodland reservations	Beaver Brook Blue Hills Breakheart Hammond Pond Middlesex Fells Quincy Quarries Southwest Corridor Stony Brook Wilson Mountain

Heritage state parks	Lynn Roxbury

Parkways and roads	Alewife Brook Arborway Blue Hills Blue Hills Reservation Charles River Reservation Day Boulevard Fellsway Fenway Fresh Pond Furnace Brook Hamond Pond Hull Shore Drive Jamaicaway Lynn Fells Memorial Drive Morrissey Boulevard Mystic Valley Nahant Beach Boulevard Nantasket Avenue Park Drive Quincy Shore Drive Revere Beach Riverway Soldiers Field Road Stony Brook Storrow Drive Truman VFW West Roxbury Winthrop Winthrop Shore Drive

Department of Conservation and Recreation Greater Boston List of Massachusetts State Parks

Streets and squares in Boston

Streets	Arborway Atlantic Avenue Beacon Street Bennington Street Blue Hills Parkway Bowdoin Street Boylston Street Brattle Street Brookline Avenue Charles Street Columbus Avenue Commonwealth Avenue Congress Street Court Street Day Boulevard Dorchester Avenue Federal Street Fenway Franklin Street Gallivan Boulevard Hanover Street Huntington Avenue Jamaicaway Massachusetts Avenue Melnea Cass Boulevard Memorial Drive Milk Street Morrissey Boulevard Morton Street New Chardon Street Newbury Street North Street Park Street Park Drive Riverway School Street Soldiers Field Road State Street Stony Brook Reservation Parkways Storrow Drive Summer Street Tremont Street Truman Parkway Union Street Veterans of Foreign Wars Parkway Washington Street West Roxbury Parkway Winter Street Yawkey Way

Squares, circles, crossings and corners	Andrew Square Blackstone Square Brigham Circle Central Square Chester Square City Square Cleveland Circle Codman Square Copley Square Day Square Dewey Square Dock Square Downtown Crossing Dudley Square Egleston Square Fields Corner Franklin Square Haymarket Square Hyde Square Jackson Square Kenmore Square Louisburg Square Maverick Square Packard's Corner Park Square Peabody Square Post Office Square Roxbury Crossing Sullivan Square Teele Square Thompson Square Union Square Uphams Corner

Italics denote streets that no longer exist. See also Neighborhoods in Boston Transportation in Boston

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