Emerald Necklace

This article is about the park system in Massachusetts. For the park system in Ohio nicknamed "the Emerald Necklace", see Cleveland Metroparks.

Emerald Necklace
Boston Public Garden, the second "jewel" of the Emerald Necklace
Type	Public park
Location	Boston and Brookline, Massachusetts, United States
Created	1860s
Operated by	Emerald Necklace Conservancy
Open	All year
Olmsted Park System
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
Location	Boston and Brookline, Massachusetts
Coordinates
Built	1870
Architect	Olmsted, Frederick Law, Sr.
NRHP Reference #	71000086
Added to NRHP	December 8, 1971

Original plan of the necklace from 1894

The Emerald Necklace consists of a 1,100-acre (4.5 km²), or 445 hectare 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; to this day it is not fully constructed.

Overview

The Necklace comprises half of the City of Boston's park acreage, parkland in the Town of Brookline, and parkways and park edges under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. More than 300,000 people live within its watershed area. The Emerald Necklace is the only remaining intact linear park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, America's first landscape architect. From Boston Common to Franklin Park it is approximately seven miles by foot or bicycle through the parks.

The Emerald Necklace includes:

• Boston Common
• Public Garden
• Commonwealth Avenue Mall
• The Fens
• The Riverway
• Olmsted Park
• Jamaica Pond
• Jamaicaway
• Arborway
• Arnold Arboretum
• Franklin Park

Several components of the Emerald Necklace pre-date the plan to unite them. Some links of the Emerald Necklace not only offer an opportunity for recreation in a wooded environment, but are also ecologically important urban wilds that provide nesting places for migratory birds and improve the air quality of the city.

History

File:Ward's pond.jpg

Ward's Pond in Olmsted Park

Fens from footbridge opposite Forsyth Dental building, looking north. Prudential building in background

This linear system of parks was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted to connect Boston Common, dating from the colonial period, and Public Garden (1837) to Franklin Park, known as the "great country park."

The project began around 1878 with the effort to clean up and control the marshy area which became the Back Bay and The Fens. In 1880, Olmsted proposed that the Muddy River, which flowed from Jamaica Pond through the Fens, be included in the park plan. The current was dredged into a winding stream and directed into the Charles River. The corridor encompassing the river became the linear park still in existence today. Olmsted's vision of a linear park of walking paths along a gentle stream connecting numerous small ponds was complete by the turn of the century. The parks conceived by Olmsted, from Storrow Drive south to Franklin Park, were collectively listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Olmsted Park System.

Over the past decade, almost $60 million in capital expenditures for parks and waterway improvements have been made in the Emerald Necklace by the City of Boston and the Town of Brookline. These efforts have included improved pathways, plantings and signage, bridge repairs, and the restoration of boardwalks and buildings. In some areas (especially the woodlands of Franklin Park and Olmsted Park) these efforts have only begun to address the over 50 years of neglect the Emerald Necklace has suffered.

Several dedicated parks organizations, including the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, the Friends of the Public Garden, the Franklin Park Coalition, and the Arboretum Park Conservancy, were created to protect, maintain, restore and advocate for the Emerald Necklace parks through the work of their staff, the donations of their constituents and the efforts of their volunteers.

Shape

The Emerald Necklace begins near Boston's Downtown Crossing, proceeds along the Boston/Brookline border, then curves into Jamaica Plain. At the south border of Arnold Arboretum, at the point most distant from its beginning, the Emerald Necklace is in Roslindale. It then hooks back up into Roxbury and Dorchester.

Olmsted's original plan called for a "U" shaped necklace which terminated at Boston Harbor. The final link, the Dorchesterway, was never realized.

Jurisdiction

• Arnold Arboretum is leased to and managed by Harvard University.
• The west banks of Olmsted Park and the Riverway are under the jurisdiction of Brookline Parks & Open Space.
• The majority of the Emerald Necklace is maintained by Boston Parks and Recreation with a small portion belonging to the Department of Conservation and Recreation.

The Emerald Necklace Conservancy

The Emerald Necklace Conservancy was created to protect, restore, maintain and promote the landscape, waterways and parkways of the Emerald Necklace park system as special places for people to visit and enjoy.

The Conservancy's programs and funding support and complement initiatives by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, City of Boston and Town of Brookline who began the Necklace's restoration in the 1980s.

A public-private partnership, the Conservancy was formed in 1996 and incorporated in 1998 as a non-profit organization. The organization brings together government, business, residential and institutional representatives, community leaders and organizations, and environmental and park advocates in support of the Olmsted legacy. President Julie Crockford and the staff work closely with the Board of Directors, the Park Overseers (representing all of the parks and friends groups within the Emerald Necklace), the Stewardship Council, and hundreds of volunteers to accomplish their mission.

Plans

The Emerald Necklace Parks Master Plan was completed in 1989, and updated in 2001.

The parks have long been subject to flooding from the Muddy River. The Muddy River Restoration Project will dredge contaminated sediments and implement other major structural improvements, unburying the river and improving its integrity, appearance, and flood control capabilities. Phase I - Daylighting the river at the Landmark Center began spring 2009.

See also

• Charles River Esplanade
• Columbia Road
• Forest Hills Cemetery
• Larz Anderson Park
• Massachusetts Audubon Society
• National Register of Historic Places listings in:
  • northern Boston, Massachusetts
  • southern Boston, Massachusetts
  • Brookline, Massachusetts
• Southwest Corridor Park
• Rose Kennedy Greenway

External links

• The Emerald Necklace Conservancy
• City of Boston Website
• Friends of the Public Garden
• A complete 1894 plan