Nahant Beach Boulevard, also Nahant Causeway and Nahant Road is a historic road on the

isthmus An isthmus (; ; ) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea counterpart of an isthmu ...

connecting

Nahant, Massachusetts Nahant is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,334 at the 2020 census, which makes it the smallest municipality by population in Essex County. With just of land area, it is the smallest municipality by are ...

to the mainland at

Lynn, Massachusetts Lynn is the eighth-largest municipality in Massachusetts and the largest city in Essex County. Situated on the Atlantic Ocean, north of the Boston city line at Suffolk Downs, Lynn is part of Greater Boston's urban inner core. Settled by E ...

. The road runs from the Lynn Rotary, its junction with Lynn Shore Drive and the Lynnway, about to Wilson Road in Nahant. It passes through Nahant Beach Reservation, a state park offering beach access on the isthmus. The road offers expansive views of the area coastlines and

Boston Harbor Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, and is located adjacent to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the northeastern United States. History Since ...

. Both the park and the roadway are administered 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 ...

. Nahant Beach Boulevard was first laid out in 1905, as part of the Metropolitan District Commission's program of developing oceanfront parkways, and provided the first paved road access to Nahant. It was designed by the firm of Olmsted, Olmsted, and Eliot, predecessor to 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. Around the same time, rail access and a bridle path were also added to the isthmus. In 1936 that roadway alignment was converted into a parking area, and the present roadway was completed the following year on the alignment of the railroad bed. The Lynn Rotary was completed in 1935. This work, along with the conversion of the bridle path to a promenade, was paid for by

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

grants. Since then modifications to the roadway have been modest. Seawalls have been built, a chain link fence was installed on the wall between the road and the parking lot, and the rotary was landscaped. When the roadway was listed on 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 ...

in 2003, the designation included, in addition to the roadway itself, the Lynn Rotary and the

Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (clock ...

Memorial located in the rotary; a second memorial, the Aliferis Monument, postdates the period of significance for the listing.

References

{{Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston Roads on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Parkways in Massachusetts Transportation in Essex County, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Essex County, Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Lynn, Massachusetts

See also

References