Olmsted Park System

Boston's Olmsted Park System is a chain of parks and parkways, often called the Emerald Necklace, that curves south from the Back Bay Fens through the Muddy River corridor, Jamaica Pond and the Arborway to Franklin Park. Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. planned it in the late 1870s and after, partly to replace a polluted, flood-prone tidal swamp with an informal park. The plan also tied newly annexed parts of the city to its historic center and offered varied recreation, from pond boating to riding and picnicking. Franklin Park, designed in 1885 as a rural retreat for working-class residents, ended the system. Surviving features include bridges and a shelter by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, Richardson's Boylston Street bridge, and sculpture by Daniel Chester French. Overpasses, a stadium and other additions have altered parts, but much of Olmsted's road pattern remains. The system is recognized as a national example of large-scale landscape and regional planning.