Old Harbor Reservation Parkways, Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston

More than three miles of parkway line Old Harbor and Dorchester Bay in South Boston. The district includes William J. Day Boulevard, once known as the Strandway and Gardner Way, along with Columbia Road and part of Old Colony Avenue. The Boston Park Commission built the roads, and they passed to the Metropolitan District Commission between 1949 and 1955. The Strandway, developed from the 1890s, was one of the Olmsted firm's major planning and engineering projects. It required demolishing existing yacht clubs and shipyards, extensive landfill and a granite block sea wall topped by an iron railing. Columbia Road was laid out under the 1897 Parkways Act as a continuous route between Franklin Park and Farragut Road. Contributing features include the Farragut Rotary and Farragut Monument, a planted median with surviving early lampposts, and granite and Belgian-block curbing. Beaches, bathhouses, boat clubs and parks beside the roads shape the setting but lie outside the district boundary.