Report of the Board of Metropolitan Park Commissioners [Boston]

Designing an ‘Emerald Metropolis’ – the first regional park system in the United States.

This remarkable volume represents one of America’s first collaborative efforts between a state legislature and urban planners to preserve vast tracts of open space for public use. While Boston’s Emerald Necklace (1870) was immensely popular and well-known, this concept took the idea a step further; looking to encompass a variety of natural landscapes across the entire metropolitan area, connected by broad parkways. These included spaces like beaches and rivers that were previously occupied by industries, railways, dilapidated tenements, and other ‘undesirable’ features.

The Metropolitan Park Commission was permanently established by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1893 to oversee the ambitious project. This was one of the group’s first reports (1894), published in January of 1895 by the Wright & Potter Printing Company of Boston. Its 100-plus pages offer detailed insight into the planning, financing, and operations of one of America’s first regional park systems.

Numerous photographic plates include a panoramic view of the Blue Hills Reservation (with accompanying key), the (Waverly) oaks on Beaver Brook Reservation, and Pickerel Rock at Middlesex Fells Reservation. Four folding maps at the back show these three areas, plus Stony Brook Reservation.

Sources: National Park Service;  Arnoldia;