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Source Description
Originally part of the Back Bay salt marsh, the narrow, tidal Muddy River formed the boundary between Boston and Brookline. By 1880, urban growth had taken its toll, and the once-flowing tributary was notoriously polluted and prone to flooding. The simple schematic plan shown here was Olmsted’s preliminary design for improving the waterway. In it, he sculpted the erratic river into a gently meandering stream, and transformed the swamp south of Tremont Street into a large pond. Olmsted would later alter this plan, going so far as to reroute the river and shift the Boston-Brookline border; this change was legally adopted in 1890.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
9s161j57f
label
Suggestion for the improvement of Muddy River and for completing a continuous promenade from the Common to Jamaica Pond
core
obj
dtoType
map
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
9s161j57f
contentType
map
stage
normalized
title
Suggestion for the improvement of Muddy River and for completing a continuous promenade from the Common to Jamaica Pond
description
Originally part of the Back Bay salt marsh, the narrow, tidal Muddy River formed the boundary between Boston and Brookline. By 1880, urban growth had taken its toll, and the once-flowing tributary was notoriously polluted and prone to flooding. The simple schematic plan shown here was Olmsted’s preliminary design for improving the waterway. In it, he sculpted the erratic river into a gently meandering stream, and transformed the swamp south of Tremont Street into a large pond. Olmsted would later alter this plan, going so far as to reroute the river and shift the Boston-Brookline border; this change was legally adopted in 1890.
date
["1880"]
year
1880
rights
No known copyright restrictions.
rightsUri
No known restrictions on use.
reuseAllowed
no restrictions
language
English
identifierLocal
06_01_004327
creators
Olmsted, Frederick Law, 1822-1903
institution
Boston Public Library
collections
Urban Maps
Boston and New England Maps
Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center Collection
subjects
Parks--Massachusetts--Boston--Maps
City planning--Massachusetts--Boston--Maps
Landscape architecture--Massachusetts--Boston--Maps
Muddy River (Norfolk County and Suffolk County, Mass. : River)--Maps
Boston (Mass.)--Maps
subjectsGeographic
Boston
Massachusetts
Muddy River
North and Central America
Suffolk (county)
United States
genreBasic
Maps
typeOfResource
Cartographic
country
United States
state
Massachusetts
thumbnailUrl
largeImageUrl
pageCount
1
source
import
pubPlace
Boston
publisher
Heliotype Print. Co.
Source extras
institutionArkId
sf268508b
collectionArkId
9s1621613
schema:latitude
42.35
schema:longitude
-71.0833
extent
1 map : col. ; 22 x 76 cm.
notes
Oriented with north toward the upper right.
Includes note.
"Dec. 1880."
hasTranscription
no
dcId
9s161j57f
type
map
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
c0a532342fd643cc