By the late 19th century, Boston was a flourishing industrial city, but this success cost many workers their health, as they performed sedentary jobs in enclosed, dirty spaces. Cambridge manufacturer Charles Davenport proposed an esplanade running along the Charles River and parallel to Commonwealth Avenue. Shown here, this water park was intended to provide relief to city dwellers. The Charles River Esplanade that we recognize today, however, was yet to come: built in 1910 as part of the Charles River Dam construction, the Esplanade—known then as the Boston Embankment—would be expanded in the 1920s and 1930s by landscape designer Arthur Shurcliff.
Shows part of Cambridge.
"To be obtained at A. William & Co."
Insets: View from the foot of Mt. Vernon St. -- [Map of Boston and vicinity].
Includes table of areas and radial distances from City Hall.
Notes (exhibitions):
Exhibited: "Breathing Room: Mapping Boston's Green Spaces" organized by the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library, 2018.
Exhibited: "Boston in the Gilded Age: Mapping Public Places" organized by the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library, 2012-2013.
IIIF Manifest