Charles River Country Club
by Joann Vitali
Title
Charles River Country Club
Artist
Joann Vitali
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Boston Harbor on the Charles River at the Charles River Country Club with yachts docked in foreground and night skyline with the Prudential Center, John Hancock Building and Longfellow bridge in background.
Today's Charles River basin between Boston and Cambridge is almost entirely a work of human design. Owen A. Galvin was appointed head of the Charles River Improvement Commission by Governor William E. Russell in 1891. Their work led to the design initiatives of noted landscape architects Charles Eliot and Arthur Shurcliff, both of whom had apprenticed with Frederick Law Olmsted and Guy Lowell. This designed landscape includes over 20 parks and natural areas along 19 miles (31 km) of shoreline, from the New Dam at the Charlestown Bridge to the dam near Watertown Square.
Eliot first envisioned today's river design in the 1890s, an important model being the layout of the Alster basin in Hamburg,[7] but major construction began only after Eliot's death with the damming of the river's mouth at today's Boston Museum of Science, an effort led by James Jackson Storrow. The new dam, completed in 1910, stabilized the water level from Boston to Watertown, eliminating the existing mud flats, and a narrow embankment was built between Leverett Circle and Charlesgate. After Storrow's death, his widow Mrs. James Jackson Storrow donated $1 million toward the creation of a more generously landscaped park along the Esplanade; it was dedicated in 1936 as the Storrow Memorial Embankment. This also enabled the construction of many public docks in the Charles River Basin. In the 1950s a highway (Storrow Drive) was built along the edge of the Esplanade to connect Charles Circle with Soldiers Field Road, and the Esplanade was enlarged on the water side of the new highway.
The Inner Belt highway was proposed to cross the Charles River at the Boston University Bridge, but its construction was canceled in the 1970s.
Uploaded
August 23rd, 2012
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Viewed 1,562 Times - Last Visitor from Fairfield, CT on 04/23/2024 at 5:54 AM
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Comments (2)
Nadine and Bob Johnston
Ahhhhhhhh, memories... More buildings in the Skyline now. Used to belong to the Community Sailing Assn near here on the Charles. Joined when was 11, Passed my Helmsman test in a month. Then got my Racing Skippers. Went sailing every day until joining the army. Was the main thing that was missed... In the evenings, we could go out with Adult members, sit and listen to the Pops Concerts at the Hatch Memorial Shell. V.F In those days, not even the John Hancock building was part of the skyline. Dating myself ;)
Joann Vitali replied:
Thanks so much Nadine & Bob:) Really glad you like it and I was able to stir up those memories for you:)
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