Boston Public Garden
Encyclopedia
The Public Garden, also known as Boston Public Garden, is a large park located in the heart of Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, adjacent to Boston Common
Boston Common
Boston Common is a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts. It is sometimes erroneously referred to as the "Boston Commons". Dating from 1634, it is the oldest city park in the United States. The Boston Common consists of of land bounded by Tremont Street, Park Street, Beacon Street,...

.

History

The Public Garden was established in 1837 when philanthropist Horace Gray petitioned for the use of land as the first public botanical garden
Botanical garden
A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...

 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Grey helped marshal political resistance to a number of Boston City Council attempts to sell the land in question, finally settling the issue of devoting it to the Public Garden in 1856. The Act establishing use of the land was submitted to the voters on 26 April 1856 where it passed with only 99 dissents.
In October 1859 Alderman Crane submitted the detailed plan for the Garden to the Committee on the Common and Public Squares and received approval. Construction began quickly on the property, with the lake being finished that year and the wrought iron fence surrounding the perimeter erected in 1862. Today the north side of the lake has a small island, but it originally was a peninsula, connected to the land. The site became so popular with lovers that the John Galvin, the city forester, decided to sever the connection with the land.

The 24 acres (97,124.6 m²) landscape, which was once a salt marsh
Marsh
In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....

, was designed by George F. Meacham
George Meacham
George Frederick Meacham was an architect in the Boston, Massachusetts area active in the 19th century. He is notable for designing Boston's Public Garden; the Massachusetts Bicycle Club; and churches, homes, and monuments in greater Boston and elsewhere in New England.- Biography :Meacham was...

. The paths and flower beds were laid out by the city engineer, James Slade and the forester, John Galvin. The plan for the garden included a number of fountains and statues. The first statue erected was that of Edward Everett
Edward Everett
Edward Everett was an American politician and educator from Massachusetts. Everett, a Whig, served as U.S. Representative, and U.S. Senator, the 15th Governor of Massachusetts, Minister to Great Britain, and United States Secretary of State...

 by William Wetmore Story
William Wetmore Story
William Wetmore Story was an American sculptor, art critic, poet and editor.-Biography:William Wetmore Story was the son of jurist Joseph Story and Sarah Waldo Story...

 in November 1867 on the north part of the Garden near Beacon Street. The bronze statue of George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

 by Thomas Ball
Thomas Ball
Thomas Ball may refer to:*Thomas Ball , English divine* Thomas Ball , American sculptor* Thomas Ball , represented the Mongonui electorate...

 which dominates the west side of the park was dedicated on 3 July 1869. The signature suspension bridge over the middle of the lake was erected in 1867.

The Public Garden is managed jointly between the Mayor's Office, The Parks Department of the City of Boston, and the non-profit Friends of the Public Garden.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...

 in 1987.

Literature, art, and film

  • In the E. B. White
    E. B. White
    Elwyn Brooks White , usually known as E. B. White, was an American writer. A long-time contributor to The New Yorker magazine, he also wrote many famous books for both adults and children, such as the popular Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, and co-authored a widely used writing guide, The...

     novel, The Trumpet of the Swan
    The Trumpet of the Swan
    The Trumpet of the Swan is a children's novel by E.B. White published in 1970. It tells the story of Louis, a Trumpeter Swan born without a voice and trying to overcome it by learning to play a trumpet, always trying to impress a beautiful pen named Serena.-Plot summary:In Canada in the spring of...

    , Louis plays his trumpet in the Public Garden.
  • Robert Lowell wrote a poem entitled "The Public Garden".
  • Robert McCloskey
    Robert McCloskey
    Robert McCloskey was an American author and illustrator of children's books. McCloskey wrote and illustrated eight books, two of which won the Caldecott Medal, the American Library Association's annual award of distinction for children's book illustration.Many of McCloskey's books were set on the...

     wrote Make Way for Ducklings
    Make Way For Ducklings
    Make Way for Ducklings is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey. First published in 1941, the book tells the story of a pair of mallard ducks who decide to raise their family on an island in the lagoon in Boston Public Garden, a park in the center of Boston,...

    , a children's story about a family of ducks and their journey to the Public Garden.
  • Scenes from the Public Garden have been painted by notable artists including Edward Brodney
    Edward Brodney
    Edward Brodney was an American artist, particularly noted for his drawings and paintings of World War II. He was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of an immigrant fisherman...

    .

Description

Together with the Boston Common, these two parks form the northern terminus of the Emerald Necklace
Emerald Necklace
The Emerald Necklace consists of an chain of parks linked by parkways and waterways in Boston and Brookline, Massachusetts. It gets its name from the way the planned chain appears to hang from the "neck" of the Boston peninsula, although it was never fully constructed.-Overview:The Necklace...

, a long string of parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...

. While the Common is primarily unstructured open space, the Public Garden contains a lake and a large series of formal plantings that are maintained by the city and others and vary from season to season.

During the warmer seasons, the 4 acres (16,187.4 m²) pond is usually the home of one or more swan
Swan
Swans, genus Cygnus, are birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae...

s and is always the site of the Swan Boats
Swan Boats (Boston, Massachusetts)
The Swan Boats are a fleet of pleasure boats operating on the lake of the Public Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The boats have been operating since 1877, and have become a cultural icon for the city. They operate from April until September....

, a famous Boston tourist attraction, which began operating in 1877. For a small fee, tourists can sit on a boat ornamented with a white swan at the rear. The boat is then pedaled around the lake by a tour guide sitting within the swan.

The current pair of swans are mute swan
Mute Swan
The Mute Swan is a species of swan, and thus a member of the duck, goose and swan family Anatidae. It is native to much of Europe and Asia, and the far north of Africa. It is also an introduced species in North America, Australasia and southern Africa. The name 'mute' derives from it being less...

s named Romeo and Juliet after the Shakespearian couple
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...

, however, it was found that both are female.

The Public Garden is rectangular in shape and is bounded on the south by Boylston Street
Boylston Street
Boylston Street is the name of a major east-west thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. Another Boylston Street runs through Boston's western suburbs....

, on the west by Arlington Street, and on the north by Beacon Street
Beacon Street
Beacon Street is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts and several of its western suburbs. Beacon Street in Boston, Brookline, Brighton, and Newton is not to be confused with the Beacon Street in nearby Somerville, or others elsewhere.-Description:...

 where it faces Beacon Hill
Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts
Beacon Hill is a historic neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, that along with the neighboring Back Bay is home to about 26,000 people. It is a neighborhood of Federal-style rowhouses and is known for its narrow, gas-lit streets and brick sidewalks...

. On its east side, Charles Street divides the Public Garden from the Common. The greenway connecting the Public Garden with the rest of the Emerald Necklace is the strip of park that runs west down the center of Commonwealth Avenue
Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Commonwealth Avenue is a major street in the cities of Boston and Newton, Massachusetts. It begins at the western edge of the Public Garden, and continues west through the neighborhoods of the Back Bay, Kenmore Square, Allston, Brighton and Chestnut Hill...

 towards the Back Bay Fens
Back Bay Fens
The Back Bay Fens, most commonly called simply The Fens, is a parkland and urban wild in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States.Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted to serve as a link in the Emerald Necklace park system, the Fens gives its name to the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood, and thereby to...

 and the Muddy River
Muddy River, Massachusetts
The Muddy River is a series of brooks and ponds that runs through sections of Boston's Emerald Necklace, including along the south boundary of Brookline, Massachusetts...

.

Plantings

Permanent flower plantings in the garden include numerous varieties of roses, bulbs, and flowering shrubs. The beds flanking the central pathway are replanted on a rotating schedule throughout the year, with different flowers for each season from mid-spring through early autumn. Plantings are supplied from 14 greenhouses the city operates at Franklin Park for the purpose.

The Public Garden is planted with a wide assortment of native and introduced trees; prominent among these are the weeping willows around the shore of the lagoon and the European and American elm
Elm
Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus Ulmus in the plant family Ulmaceae. The dozens of species are found in temperate and tropical-montane regions of North America and Eurasia, ranging southward into Indonesia. Elms are components of many kinds of natural forests...

s that line the garden's pathways, along with horse chestnuts
Aesculus
The genus Aesculus comprises 13-19 species of woody trees and shrubs native to the temperate northern hemisphere, with 6 species native to North America and 7-13 species native to Eurasia; there are also several hybrids. Species are deciduous or evergreen...

, dawn redwoods, European beech
Beech
Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.-Habit:...

es, ginkgo trees, and one California redwood. Other notable trees include:

  • Beech trees
    • European beech
    • Purple beech
    • Weeping European beech
  • River birch
  • Castor aurelia
  • Western catalpa
  • Kwanzan cherry
  • Kentucky coffee tree
  • Tea crab
  • Bald cyprus

  • Elm trees
    • American elm
    • Belgian elm
    • Camperdown elm
    • English elm
    • Rock elm
    • Scotch elm
  • Horsechestnut
  • Japanese larch
  • Linden trees
    • Common linden
    • Littleleaf linden
  • Star magnolia

  • Maidenhair tree
  • Maple trees
    • Norway maple
    • Red maple
    • Silver maple
  • Oak trees
    • Burr oak
    • English oak
    • Pin oak
  • Pagoda trees
    • Pagoda tree
    • Weeping pagoda

  • Redwood trees
    • Dawn redwood
    • Giant redwood
  • Silk tree
  • Silverbell
  • Japanese stewartia
  • Japanese tree lilac
  • Tuliptree
  • Tupelo
  • Yellowwood
  • Weeping willow


Statues and structures

Several statues
Statues
Statues is a popular children's game, often played in Australia but with versions throughout the world.-General rules:# A person starts out as the "Curator" and stands at the end of a field. Everyone else playing stands at the far end...

 are located throughout the Public Garden.
  • Located at the Arlington Street gate is the equestrian
    Equestrianism
    Equestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...

     statue of George Washington
    George Washington
    George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

    , by Thomas Ball
    Thomas Ball
    Thomas Ball may refer to:*Thomas Ball , English divine* Thomas Ball , American sculptor* Thomas Ball , represented the Mongonui electorate...

     in 1869, which faces Commonwealth Avenue.
  • John Quincy Adams Ward
    John Quincy Adams Ward
    John Quincy Adams Ward was an American sculptor, who is most familiar for his over-lifesize standing statue of George Washington on the steps of Federal Hall on Wall Street.-Early years:...

    's "Good Samaritan" Ether Monument
    Ether Monument
    The Ether Monument, also known as The Good Samaritan, is a statue and fountain near the northwest corner of Boston's Public Garden, near the intersection of Arlington Street and Beacon Street....

     commemorates the first use of ether
    Ether
    Ethers are a class of organic compounds that contain an ether group — an oxygen atom connected to two alkyl or aryl groups — of general formula R–O–R'. A typical example is the solvent and anesthetic diethyl ether, commonly referred to simply as "ether"...

     as an anesthetic.
  • Just north of the "Good Samaritan" is Daniel Chester French
    Daniel Chester French
    Daniel Chester French was an American sculptor. His best-known work is the sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Life and career:...

    's memorial to the Boston philanthropist George Robert White
    George Robert White
    George Robert White was an American philanthropist. He was a citizen of Boston, Massachusetts for most of his life. As a boy he began working for the Weeks and Potter Drug Company. Over time White's responsibilities grew and he eventually became the president and owner of the firm. White changed...

     entitled "The Angel of the Waters", created in 1924.
  • The first statue in the Garden that was made by a woman was Anna Coleman Ladd's Triton Babies Fountain on the east side of the garden. Though some people think the children are a boy and girl, they are in fact her two daughters. It was acquired by the garden in 1927.
  • Bashka Paeff's "Boy and Bird", in the fountain on the west side of the garden, was made by a Russian immigrant who did the model of it while she was working as a ticket taker at the Park Street Station of the MBTA.
  • A set of bronze statues based on the main characters from the children's story Make Way for Ducklings
    Make Way For Ducklings
    Make Way for Ducklings is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey. First published in 1941, the book tells the story of a pair of mallard ducks who decide to raise their family on an island in the lagoon in Boston Public Garden, a park in the center of Boston,...

    is located between the pond and the Charles and Beacon streets entrance.
  • At the east gate on Charles Street is a bronze statue of Edward Everett Hale
    Edward Everett Hale
    Edward Everett Hale was an American author, historian and Unitarian clergyman. He was a child prodigy who exhibited extraordinary literary skills and at age thirteen was enrolled at Harvard University where he graduated second in his class...

     by Bela Pratt
    Bela Pratt
    Bela Lyon Pratt was an American sculptor.-Life:Pratt was born in Norwich, Connecticut to Sarah and George Pratt, a Yale-educated lawyer. His maternal grandfather, Oramel Whittlesey, was a pianoforte maker and founder in 1835 of the first music school in the country authorized to confer degrees to...

     in 1869.
  • Along the south walk in the park is a statue of Wendell Phillips
    Wendell Phillips
    Wendell Phillips was an American abolitionist, advocate for Native Americans, and orator. He was an exceptional orator and agitator, advocate and lawyer, writer and debater.-Education:...

     (1811–1884) an orator and abolitionist.
  • Colonel Thomas Cass
    Thomas Cass
    Colonel Thomas Cass founded and was commander of the 9th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry of the Union Army, which saw extensive service in the American Civil War. Cass was wounded at the Battle of Malvern Hill and died shortly after from his wounds in Boston, Massachusetts...

    , commander of the 9th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
    9th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
    The 9th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was a military unit from Boston, Massachusetts, USA, part of the Army of the Potomac during the American Civil War. It is also known as "The Fighting Ninth". It existed from 1861 to 1864 and participated in several key battles during the war...

     which served in the American Civil War is also memorialized on the south walk.
  • Next to the statue of Cass is a statue of Charles Sumner
    Charles Sumner
    Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...

     a congressman from Boston during the Civil War
  • The walk also has a statue of Tadeusz Kościuszko
    Tadeusz Kosciuszko
    Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko was a Polish–Lithuanian and American general and military leader during the Kościuszko Uprising. He is a national hero of Poland, Lithuania, the United States and Belarus...

    , a Polish citizen who fought in the American Revolution as a Colonel.
  • The bridge crossing the lagoon, designed by William G. Preston
    William G. Preston
    William G. Preston was an American architect. He was active in Boston and Georgia, where he designed the De Soto Hotel and the Savannah Volunteer Guards Armory...

    , opened in 1867. It was the world's shortest functioning suspension bridge
    Suspension bridge
    A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. Outside Tibet and Bhutan, where the first examples of this type of bridge were built in the 15th century, this type of bridge dates from the early 19th century...

     before its conversion to a girder bridge
    Girder bridge
    A girder bridge, in general, is a bridge built of girders placed on bridge abutments and foundation piers. In turn, a bridge deck is built on top of the girders in order to carry traffic. There are several different subtypes of girder bridges:...

     in 1921. Its original suspension system is now merely decorative.

Care and upkeep

The park is maintained by the City of Boston, which in 2005 spent $1.2m to keep up its three parks. The city's efforts are supplemented by a charitable organization known as the Friends of the Public Garden, also known as the Rose Brigade. The charity helped finance the repair of the Ether Monument in 2006, and hires specialists to help care for the trees and bushes. Volunteers meet regularly to prune and maintain bushes. Financial support also comes from private sources such as the Beacon Hill Garden Club
Beacon Hill Garden Club
The Beacon Hill Garden Club of Boston, Massachusetts, is a private civic group devoted to green spaces and urban beautification in the neighborhood of Beacon Hill and elsewhere in the city. Founders of the club include artist Gertrude Beals Bourne...

.

Transportation

The Public Garden is easily accessible from the MBTA
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, often referred to as the MBTA or simply The T, is the public operator of most bus, subway, commuter rail and ferry systems in the greater Boston, Massachusetts, area. Officially a "body politic and corporate, and a political subdivision" of the...

 Green Line
Green Line (MBTA)
The Green Line is a streetcar system run by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in the Boston, Massachusetts area of the United States. It is the oldest line of Boston's subway, which is known locally as the 'T'. The Green Line runs underground downtown and on the surface in outlying...

's Arlington Station
Arlington (MBTA station)
Arlington is a station on the Green Line light rail service of the MBTA transit system. The station is located at the southwest corner of the Boston Public Garden, at the corner of Arlington and Boylston Streets...

. Other nearby subway stops include the Green Line
Green Line (MBTA)
The Green Line is a streetcar system run by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in the Boston, Massachusetts area of the United States. It is the oldest line of Boston's subway, which is known locally as the 'T'. The Green Line runs underground downtown and on the surface in outlying...

's Boylston Station
Boylston (MBTA station)
Boylston is a station on the Green Line light rail service of the MBTA rapid transport network, and is located on the southeast corner of Boston Common at the intersection of Boylston and Tremont Streets.-Location:...

 and the Red Line
Red Line (MBTA)
The Red Line is a rapid transit line operated by the MBTA running roughly north-south through Boston, Massachusetts into neighboring communities. The line begins west of Boston, in Cambridge, Massachusetts at Alewife station, near the intersection of Alewife Brook Parkway and Route 2...

's Park Street Station
Park Street (MBTA station)
Park Street is a rapid transit and light rail station of the MBTA subway system in Downtown Boston. One of the four subway hub stations, Park Street is a transfer point between the Green and Red Lines. Park Street is the fourth-busiest station in the MBTA network, with an average of 19,836 entries...

. Public parking is located underneath Charles Street.

Further reading

  • Edwin G. Heath. From Round Marsh to Public Garden. The Bostonian, v.2, no.6, 1895.

External links




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