Lynn Fells Parkway is a

parkway A parkway is a landscaped thoroughfare.''"parkway."''Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (14 Apr. 2007). The term is particularly used for a roadway in a park or ...

Greater Boston Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston (the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England) and its surrounding areas. The region forms the northern ar ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is maintained by the

Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) is a state agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, situated in the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. It is best known for its parks and parkways. The DCR's mission is ...

. The road runs from the end of Fellsway East in Stoneham, eastward through Melrose, and ends in Saugus at

US Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making i ...

. The parkway serves as a connector between the

Middlesex Fells Reservation Middlesex Fells Reservation, often referred to simply as the Fells, is a public recreation area covering more than in Malden, Medford, Melrose, Stoneham, and Winchester, Massachusetts. The state park surrounds two inactive reservoirs, Spot ...

and

Breakheart Reservation Breakheart Reservation is a public recreation area covering in the towns of Saugus and Wakefield, Massachusetts. The reservation features a hardwood forest, two freshwater lakes, a winding stretch of the Saugus River, and scenic views of Bosto ...

History

The parkway was proposed in 1897 as part of a wide-ranging series of interconnected parkways in the greater Boston area. The original proposal by the

Olmsted Brothers The Olmsted Brothers company was a landscape architectural firm in the United States, established in 1898 by brothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957), sons of the landscape architect Frederick Law ...

landscape design firm was that the parkway would connect the Middlesex Fells to the

Lynn Woods Reservation Lynn Woods Reservation (founded 1881) is a municipal forest park located in Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts. The City of Lynn's Department of Public Works, Park Commission and Lynn Water & Sewer Commission share jurisdiction and management ...

in Lynn, but the full proposal was never implemented. The first portion of the parkway, from the Stoneham-Melrose line to Main Street in Melrose, was built between 1906 and 1908, although a particularly difficult section, built on swampy land near Ell Pond Park, was not completed until 1911. Lack of funding stalled construction of additional sections until 1929, when construction to Route 1 was begun. Plans to continue the parkway to Lynn Woods only advanced as far as acquiring and grading a right of way from Route 1 to Walnut Street, part of which is now taken over by the figure-eight interchange between the two roads. The Melrose/Saugus portion of the parkway was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on May 9, 2003, listed along with other roadways of the

Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston The Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston is a system of reservations, parks, parkways and roads under the control of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) in and around Boston that has been in existence for over a ...

. Contributing elements to the National Register listing, in addition to the roadway, are the tree canopy that shades much of the road, and the 1930 girder bridge that carries railroad tracks over the road between Vinton and Tremont Streets in Melrose.

Major intersections

References

{{Reflist Parkways in Massachusetts Melrose, Massachusetts Saugus, Massachusetts Stoneham, Massachusetts Roads on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Transportation in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Transportation in Essex County, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Essex County, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Middlesex County, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Stoneham, Massachusetts Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts

History

Major intersections

See also

References