The Dorchesterway was a
parkway planned by 19th century landscape designer
Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co ...
to be a continuation of the
Emerald Necklace
The Emerald Necklace consists of a chain of parks linked by parkways and waterways in Boston and Brookline, Massachusetts. It was designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, and gets its name from the way the planned chain appear ...
park network in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
. This plan, however, was never implemented.
History
Olmsted's vision
The Emerald Necklace, as extant today, has a sort of "L" shape. It starts at the
Boston Common
The Boston Common (also known as the Common) is a public park in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest city park in the United States. Boston Common consists of of land bounded by Tremont Street (139 Tremont St.), Park Street, Beac ...
near
Downtown Crossing
Downtown Crossing is a shopping district within downtown Boston, Massachusetts, located east of Boston Common, west of the Financial District, south of Government Center, and north of Chinatown and the old Combat Zone. It features la ...
and extends out to the
Arnold Arboretum (which starts in
Forest Hills but has portions in
Roslindale
Roslindale is a primarily residential neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, bordered by Jamaica Plain, Hyde Park, West Roxbury and Mattapan.
It is served by an MBTA Commuter Rail line, several MBTA bus lines and the MBTA Orange Line in nearby J ...
near the
West Roxbury border). It then changes direction back inwards as the Arboretum connects via
the Arborway to
Franklin Park.
Olmsted wanted the Emerald Necklace to continue via the Dorchesterway to the shore of
Boston Harbor’s Dorchester Bay and thus form a "U" shape. He intended Columbia Road in
Dorchester and the Strandway (the southern roadway of which is now known as
William J. Day Boulevard) in
South Boston
South Boston is a densely populated neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located south and east of the Fort Point Channel and abutting Dorchester Bay. South Boston, colloquially known as Southie, has undergone several demographic transformat ...
to connect South Boston's Marine Park and Pleasure Bay to the network of natural-looking
green spaces he had designed.
However:
...conditions of Columbia Road when the parks system was being established ..precluded this vision from becoming a reality. When Columbia Road was formally designed in the late 1800s, there was already a relatively high density of buildings. The road had street rails that were used by a streetcar trolley connecting Uphams Corner and Franklin Park. There was a grass strip in the center and roads on either side, one for commercial traffic and the other for pleasure traffic. As a result, Columbia Road failed to serve the purposes of either the businesses or the pleasure travelers well, and there was not enough room for what Olmsted considered a proper parkway.[Heart of the City Project, Center for Urban and Regional Policy, Harvard University and Northeastern University](_blank)
Later changes
Some trees and planters were added on Columbia Boulevard in the late 1980s.
In the last decade, the
Boston Department of Parks and Recreation planted and has been maintaining
tree
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...
s, grass, planters and other
vegetation
Vegetation is an assemblage of plant species and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characte ...
along one section of Columbia Road.
But despite the recent greening of parts of Columbia Road, natural elements in this area remain meager due to the dense neighborhood development. For this reason, the corridor is not a parkway along the lines of other sections of the Emerald Necklace in nearby
Jamaica Plain
Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood of in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of the former Town of Roxbury, now also a part of the City of Boston. The commun ...
, and Columbia Road is not considered part of the Emerald Necklace.
The
Boston bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics
The Boston 2024 Partnership was a short-lived bid to bring the 2024 Summer Olympics to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. The official proposal was submitted on September 12, 2014. On January 8, 2015, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) c ...
proposed private funding to remove the median of Columbia Road and install trees and separated bike lanes,
but the bid was withdrawn in July, 2015.
Proposals
It is possible that some incarnation of a Dorchesterway connecting the Emerald Necklace to the seashore might someday come into being. Members of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, expressing a long-term vision for the Boston Parks system, have proposed using Columbia Road to enhance the connections between Franklin Park, Marine Park and Pleasure Bay via Columbia Road. Linking to
South Boston
South Boston is a densely populated neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located south and east of the Fort Point Channel and abutting Dorchester Bay. South Boston, colloquially known as Southie, has undergone several demographic transformat ...
has also been discussed. According to Simone Auster, former director of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy:
...a vision for a "completed" Emerald Necklace has not yet been flushed out by the Conservancy or other groups, but the idea of the system connecting to Pleasure Bay and Castle Island via Columbia Road and eventually back to Back Bay Fens
The Back Bay Fens, often called The Fens, is a parkland and urban wild in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. It was established in 1879. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted to serve as a link in the Emerald Necklace park system, the Fe ...
or Boston Common resonates with many Bostonians.
A representative of the Boston Department of Parks and Recreation said:
It should be a priority to reconnect Columbia Road and give it a boulevard
A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America, any urban highway.
Boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former city walls.
In American usage, boulevards may ...
feeling. The quality of space, the mature trees and grass—they should be as much a part of making this area feel special as on the opposite side.
In 2004, a
Boston Redevelopment Authority
The Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA), formerly the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), is a Massachusetts public agency that serves as the municipal planning and development agency for Boston, working on both housing and commercial de ...
strategic plan for the improvement of
Roxbury recommended major street reconstruction, including trees and antique-style
lamp posts, to give Columbia Road the character of a pleasant boulevard.
References
{{Emerald Necklace
Emerald Necklace
Parkways in Massachusetts