Charles Eliot Memorial, Charles River Eslpanade - Boston, MA
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NorStar
N 42° 21.566 W 071° 04.392
19T E 329268 N 4691766
This memorial to Charles Eliot, once an apprentice under Frederick Law Olmsted, commemorates the master behind the metropolitan parks around Boston, including the Charles River Reservation, Blue Hills Reservation, and the Middlesex Fells.
Waymark Code: WM907H
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 06/07/2010
Views: 3
In Boston, within the Charles River Reservation known as the Charles River Esplanade, and between the Hatch Shell and the Community Boating, Inc. building, is a stone memorial to Charles Eliot, the landscape architect whose completed works are enjoyed by millions every year.
The marker has inscriptions on all four sides. The first side text is as follows:
"To honor
Charles Eliot
1859 1897
Landscape Architect
He sought out hill forest shore
for all to enjoy
Blue Hills
Neponset River
Stony Brook
Metropolitan
Parks and Parkways
to the South"
On the next side text is as follows:
"Waltham Hills
Beaver Brook
Charles River
Metropolitan
Parks and Parkways
to the West"
The next side text is as follows:
"Middlesex Fells
Mystic Lakes
Mystic River
Metropolitan
Parks and Parkways
to the North"
The last side text is as follows:
"Revere Beach
Winthrop Shore
Quincy Shore
Metropolitan
Parks and Parkways
to the East"
The monument stands about human height and is a bit taller than a perfect cube. There is a path from the south that approaches it. The monument is shaded by the trees surrounding it.
Charles Eliot was born locally in 1859 in Cambridge, MA. His father, also Charles, was President of Harvard University. Charles, the younger, graduated from Harvard and studied at the Bussey Institute at Harvard to prepare for a career in landscape architecture. He apprenticed at Frederick Law Olmsted and Company, where he worked on many of Olmsted's projects, including Franklin Park in Boston. After travelling through Europe to observe park features there, he retured to the U.S. in 1866 and opened his own office. Later, he would join Frederick Law Olmsted's sons' firm.
The parks and parkways listed on the memorial were part of an interlinked park system then under the Metropolitan District Commission, or MDC - now part of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. Of particular note is the Middlesex Fells north of Boston, which ringed a series of lakes for municipal water, and the Blue Hills Reervation south of Boston, which protected a range of low hills.
More Information:
Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (Mass. DCR):
(
visit link)