Public Garden

Boston Public Garden
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark District
The Public Garden looking east from the Arlington Street entrance, with the skyline of Boston's financial district
Location:	Boston, Massachusetts
Area:	24 acres[1]
Built/Founded:	1837
Governing body:	Local
Added to NRHP:	July 12, 1972 (original, in NRHP also including Boston Common) February 27, 1987 (new, as NHL of Boston Public Garden alone)[2]
Designated NHLD:	February 27, 1987[3]
NRHP Reference#:	72000144 (original) 87000761 (new)

The Public Garden, also known as Boston Public Garden, is a large park located in the heart of Boston, Massachusetts, adjacent to the Boston Common.

History

The Public Garden was established in 1837 when philanthropist Horace Gray^[4] petitioned for the use of land as the first public botanical garden in the United States. Grey helped marshal political resistance to a number of Boston City Council attempts to sell the land in question, finally settling the issue of devoting it to the Public Garden in 1856.^[5] The Act establishing use of the land was submitted to the voters on 26 April, 1856 where it passed with only 99 dissents.

In October 1859 Alderman Crane submitted the detailed plan for the Garden to the Committee on the Common and Public Squares and received approval. Construction began quickly on the property, with the lake being finished that year and the wrought iron fence surrounding the perimeter erected in 1862. Today the north side of the lake has a small island, but it originally was a peninsula, connected to the land. The site became so popular with lovers that the John Galvin, the city forester, decided to sever the connection with the land.^[6]

The twenty-four acre (97,000 m²) landscape, which was once a salt marsh, was designed by George F. Meacham. The paths and flower beds were laid out by the city engineer, James Slade and the forester, John Galvin. The plan for the garden included a number of fountains and statues. The first statue erected was that of Edward Everett by William Wetmore Story in November 1867 on the north part of the Garden near Beacon Street. The bronze statue of George Washington by Thomas Ball which dominates the west side of the park was dedicated on 3 July 1869. The signature suspension bridge over the middle of the lake was erected in 1867.

The Public Garden is managed jointly between the Mayor's Office, The Parks Department of the City of Boston, and the non-profit Friends of the Public Garden.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987.^[3][1]

In Literature, Art, and Film

• In the E.B. White novel, The Trumpet of the Swan, Louis plays his trumpet in the Public Garden.
• Robert Lowell wrote a poem entitled "The Public Garden."
• Robert McCloskey wrote Make Way for Ducklings, a children's story about a family of ducks and their journey to the Public Garden.
• Scenes from the Public Garden have been painted by notable artists including Edward Brodney.

Description

Together with the Boston Common, these two parks form the northern terminus of the Emerald Necklace, a long string of parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. While the Common is primarily unstructured open space, the Public Garden contains a lake and a large series of formal plantings that are maintained by the city and others and vary from season to season.

During the warmer seasons, the four acre (16,000 m²) pond is usually the home of one or more swans and is always the site of the Swan Boats, a famous Boston tourist attraction. For a small fee, tourists can sit on a boat ornamented with a white swan at the rear. The boat is then pedaled around the lake by a tour guide sitting within the swan.

The Public Garden is rectangular in shape and is bounded on the south by Boylston Street, on the west by Arlington Street, and on the north by Beacon Street where it faces Beacon Hill. On its east side, Charles Street divides the Public Garden from the Common. The greenway connecting the Public Garden with the rest of the Emerald Necklace is the strip of park that runs west down the center of Commonwealth Avenue towards the Back Bay Fens and the Muddy River.

Plantings

The Public Garden is planted with a wide assortment of native and introduced trees; prominent among these are the weeping willows around the shore of the lagoon and the European and American elms that line the garden's pathways, along with horse chestnuts, dawn redwoods, European beeches, ginkgo trees, and one California redwood.

Permanent flower plantings in the garden include numerous varieties of roses, bulbs, and flowering shrubs. The beds flanking the central pathway are replanted on a rotating schedule throughout the year, with different flowers for each season from mid-spring through early autumn.

Statues and structures

Several statues are located throughout the Public Garden.

• Located at the Arlington Street gate is the equestrian statue of George Washington, which faces Commonwealth Avenue.
• A set of bronze statues based on the main characters from the children's story Make Way for Ducklings is located between the pond and the Charles and Beacon streets entrance.
• John Quincy Adams Ward's "Good Samaritan" Ether Monument commemorates the first use of ether as an anesthetic.^[7]
• Just north of the "Good Samaritan" is Daniel Chester French's memorial to the Boston philanthropist George Robert White entitled "The Angel of the Waters", created in 1924.
• Along the south walk in the park is a statue of Wendell Phillips (1811–1884) an orator and abolitionist.
• Colonel Thomas Cass, commander of the 9th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry which served in the American Civil War is also memorialized on the south walk.
• Next to the statue of Cass is a statue of Charles Sumner a congressman from Boston during the Civil War
• The walk also has a statue of Tadeusz Kościuszko, a Polish citizen who fought in the American Revolution as a Colonel.
• The bridge crossing the lagoon was designed by William G. Preston and opened in 1867. It was the world's shortest functioning suspension bridge before its conversion to a girder bridge in 1921. Its original suspension system is now merely decorative.

Care and upkeep

The park is maintained by the City of Boston. A group of neighborhood volunteers that terms themselves the Rose Brigade tends several rose bush within the park.

Transportation

The Public Garden is easily accessible from the MBTA Green Line's Arlington Station. Other nearby subway stops include the Green Line's Boylston Station and the Red Line's Park Street Station. Public parking is located underneath Charles Street.

Gallery

A panorama, taken during the day.	Lagoon bridge in the Boston Public Garden (1989).	Swan boats on the lake.	Horace Gray, father of the Boston Public Garden
Boston Public Garden in the winter of 1901	Equestrian statue of George Washington designed by Thomas Ball.	Make Way for Ducklings by Nancy Schön.	The Ether Monument by John Quincy Adams Ward.
The Ether Monument closeup by John Quincy Adams Ward.	Statue honoring Charles Sumner.	Statue honoring Tadeusz Kosciuszko	Memorial to Wendell Phillips
Dedication ceremony of the Wendell Phillips Monument 5 July 1915	Entrance sign

See also

• List of botanical gardens in the United States

References

New England Magazine. Boston: Warren F Kellogg. pp. 343–356. http://books.google.com/books?id=fLkVAAAAYAAJ&printsec=toc&dq=%22boston+public+garden%22&as_brr=1&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0#PPA345,M1. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Boston Public Garden

• Friends of the Public Garden
• Public Garden. Fodors.com. May 22, 2005.
• The Swan Boats of Boston - The Public Garden. May 22, 2005.
• Photos of the Public Garden

Coordinates: 42°21′15″N 71°04′12″W / 42.354112°N 71.069942°W / 42.354112; -71.069942

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