The Common is just across Charles Street from the Public Garden—the second great park to be laid out in Boston. This Public Garden was reclaimed from the marshes, and at present covers about twenty-four and a half acres. It is truly a garden, and during the spring, summer, and fall nearly every species of beautiful flower, plant, and shrub may here be seen—a riot of color and beauty.
But the people of Boston did not stop even with the Public Garden. The city of Boston has, besides, numerous small squares at intervals through the city. She also has vast tracts of rural land, which, unlike the Public Garden, are left to their own wild beauty. Owing to Boston's expanse of water front, it is possible for her to have both inland and ocean parks, where may be found all kinds of open-air sports and recreations.
Some of the most important of these parks are Franklin Park, the Fens, the Arnold Arboretum, Marine Park, and the Charles River Basin. In the Arnold Arboretum, the property of Harvard College, are rare shrubs and trees. Fortunate is the one who can visit it in lilac time, when scores of varieties of lilacs, both white and many shades of violet, scent the air with their delicate perfumes.
The best example of the ocean parkways is Marine Park. There one finds extensive bathhouses, a good beach, lawns, and a long pier extending several hundred feet out into the water. Connected with Marine Park by a long bridge is Castle Island, the site of Fort Independence.
The Charles River Basin is a popular promenade. This river, until recently, showed for many hours of the day the uncovered mud flats of low tide. Now by means of a dam it has been turned into a great fresh-water lake. Cambridge and Boston have laid out parkways on either side of the river, and before long further improvements will make this basin even more attractive.
Through the influence of Boston the surrounding cities and towns have given certain large areas of great natural beauty to form the Metropolitan Park System. This Metropolitan Park System consists of 3 forest reserves of 7000 acres of woodland, 30 miles of river park, 10 miles of seacoast, and 40 miles of connecting parkways.
Two great ocean parks in the system are Revere Beach and Nantasket, both favorite summer resorts, while the most noted inland reservations are the Blue Hills and the Middlesex Fells.
A Roman matron of long ago, when asked to show her jewels, pointed to her sons with pride, saying, “These are my jewels.” And so it is with Boston. She is proud of her history, her fine public buildings, her busy thoroughfares, her parks, her great centers of industry, and her commerce; but most of all, she is proud of her more than ninety thousand school children.
From the earliest times Boston's schools have ranked among the best in the country. The first public school in America was established in Dorchester, and some of the greatest educators, such as Horace Mann and Charles W. Eliot, have been associated with Boston or its suburbs.
