Furnace Brook Parkway

Furnace Brook Parkway
National Register of Historic Places
Historic District
location	Quincy , Massachusetts
Coordinates	42 ° 14 '58 "  N , 71 ° 1' 46"  W Coordinates: 42 ° 14 '58 "  N , 71 ° 1' 46"  W
Built	1904
architect	Charles Eliot , Olmsted Brothers
NRHP number	04000248
The NRHP added	March 18, 2004

Furnace Brook Parkway map (red line)

The Furnace Brook Parkway is a historic Parkway in Quincy , Massachusetts . It is part of the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston and serves as a link between the Blue Hills Reservation and the Quincy Shore Reservation at Quincy Bay . First planned for the late 19th century, this Massachusetts-owned parkway is maintained by the local Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). It leads over land that once belonged to the family of John Adams and John Quincy Adams . It passes several historical sites and ends in the Merrymount district , where the colonization of Quincy by Captain Richard Wollaston began in 1625. Construction of the road began in 1904 and was completed in 1916. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 2004 .

The Furnace Brook Parkway divides the center of Quincy from southwest to northeast roughly in half and follows the watercourses of Furnace Brook and Blacks Creek, the estuary into which Furnace Brook empties and crosses the two bodies of water several times. On the majority of its length the road is a two-lane road without median strip, with the exception of carriageways on a roundabout - in New England , these rotary called - at the intersection with Interstate 93 .

history

The parkway takes its name from the body of water it follows, Furnace Brook, which rises on the east side of the Blue Hills and from there flows over four miles through Quincy to the Atlantic Ocean , meets the ocean in an estuary called Blacks Creek near Quincy Bay. The creek got its name in the seventeenth century due to its proximity to the Winthrop Iron Furnace , also known as the Braintree Furnace, the first blast furnaces for iron in what would later become the United States. Iron Foundry and Forge was founded in 1644 by John Winthrop the Younger in the North Precinct of Braintree , which became Quincy in 1792.

design

The use of the land at Furnace Brook was first planned by the landscape architect Charles Eliot . He practiced together with Frederick Law Olmsted and in 1893 took over the management of Olmsted's architectural office. Olmsted was responsible for planning Central Park in Manhattan and worked with Eliot on Boston's Emerald Necklace , a chain of connected parks and bodies of water. Eliot was instrumental in founding The Trustees of Reservations and the Metropolitan Parks Public Commission in the 1890s, and envisioned a network of parks circumnavigating Boston. Among these are Middlesex Fells , Stony Brook , Blue Hills, and Quincy Shore; Furnace Brook was seen as an integral part of that system, with an urban parkway connecting the Blue Hills and Quincy Shore.

Establishment

The finances for the proposed parkway were cleared by the Massachusetts General Court in 1901 . The proposed route at the end of Hough's Neck was also used in 1902 to plan part of a sewer line from Boston to Nut Island. The western portion of the street was planned and built first, with plans for the section between Wampatuck Road and Hancock Street being presented in 1903. Construction of the road began in 1904, while an important structure, the bridge that spans the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad's granite branch line over the parkway, was completed in 1906. The sub-construction of the road between the Blue Hills Reservation and Adams Street was completed at the same time. Construction of the carriageway between Blue Hills and Adams Street and most of the land acquisition necessary to continue the street to Quincy Shore continued through January 1908.

completion

The further acquisition of land and the rest of the construction work continued for several years. During this time, several new structures were built along the street, including some Colonial Revival- style structures dating from 1910. Construction of a stone and concrete bridge spanning the parkway over Blacks Creek began in the fall of 1915 and was completed the following year. The entire stretch of Furnace Brook Parkway was opened to traffic on November 18, 1916.

After completion

The Granite Branch Bridge over the newly built Parkway in 1909; the bridge was demolished during the construction of the Southeast Expressway.

After the road was completed, a speed limit of 20 miles per hour (32 km / h) was imposed. This limit was later increased to the current value of 30 miles per hour (48 km / h); a previously passed ordinance against the placement of billboards was enforced from the start. In 1929 a gas station was built at 507 Furnace Brook Parkway and it still exists today.

The route of the parkway has remained unchanged since it was completed in 1916, with the exception of the destruction of a section by the construction of Interstate 93 in the 1950s. Exit 8 of the Southeast Expressway, on which Interstate 93 and US Highway 1 and Massachusetts Route 3 run, was built in 1956–1957 on the right of way of the former New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad . The old railway bridge was demolished and part of the parkway was replaced by a large roundabout with a system of entrances and exits to the freeway. The south-facing driveway to the motorway was moved 450 m to the north in 1997 in order to cope with the unexpectedly long lines of trucks that were used in connection with the Big Dig to transport the excavated earth. The excavated earth was used to backfill previous granite quarries and so a golf course in Quarry Hills north of the parkway on Ricciuti Drive, which ends at the south exit of the highway to Furnace Brook Parkway.

Route description

From the Blue Hills to Adams Street

Furnace Brook Parkway begins at the east end of Wampatuck Road, one of the Blue Hills Reservation Parkways , at a gated entrance to the Blue Hills Reservation on Bunker Hill Road in West Quincy . The gates to the reserve are open during the day and closed from 8:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. From Bunker Hill Road, the parkway heads east to northeast for about four hundred yards before joining Willard Street, which was formerly a northern section of Massachusetts Route 37 . The two streets together lead to the roundabout known as the Furnace Brook Rotary, where they meet other streets without separate lanes. The roundabout is connected to the Southeast Expressway by entry and exit ramps on either side of the freeway; Furnace Brook Parkway turns on the northeast side of the roundabout going east under the freeway. The westbound traffic leads on a bridge over the highway.

The Parkway then leads through a four-block industrial park which, with the exception of two petrol stations, is the only commercial development along the street. Although the road is on the whole north-easterly, it swings to the north-west after crossing Copeland Street. Near Cross Street, it passes just eighty meters past the Winthrop Iron Furnace, which ultimately gave the parkway its name. Between Cross and Quarry Street, the north side of the street, facing Boston, turns into open space through which the stream flows, while the south side consists of a residential area. On Quarry Street, the parkway turns north and then follows a northeast direction. There are residential developments on both sides of the street between Quarr Street and Adams Street.

Between Adams Street and Hancock Street

A gas station on the Parkway built in 1929

There is a golf course on the north side of the parkway from Adams Street to Willow Avenue; the south side is a residential area. The Charles A. Bernazzani Elementary School is surrounded by parts of the golf course. In this section, Furnace Brook passes under the parkway directly west of Willow Avenue. From Willow Avenue to Newport Avenue there are residential houses on the north side of the street, to the south is a retirement home and most of the Adams National Historical Park with the Old House , the residence of the Adams family from 1788 to the beginning of the 20th century.

One block further, the parkway runs under the MBTA's Red Line and Greenbush and Old Colony lines , which run parallel to Newport Avenue. In this area there are residential buildings north of the street, the stream runs on the south side.

From Hancock Street to Quincy Bay

Approaching the bridge over Blacks Creek heading north

Located on the southeast corner of the intersection with Hancock Street an armory of the National Guard, the Quincy National Guard Armory. To the south is the Dorothy Quincy Homestead , a National Historic Landmark, and the Dorothy Q Apartments , which are also on the National Register of Historic Places . In the area between Hancock Street and the Southern Artery ( Massachusetts Route 3A ), the Parkway crosses Blacks Creek where the creek flows into the estuary. To the north of this is Merrymount Park with the estuary, to the south of which there is residential development.

The final stretch extends from the Southern Artery to Quincy Shore Drive . Here the Furnace Brook Parkway crosses the northwestern edge of Merrymount , where Quincy was founded in 1625. Then the view opens on the left to the north over Blacks Creek and the marsh to Quincy Bay and beyond the Boston Harbor Islands. Furnace Brook Parkway ends at the intersection with Quincy Shore Drive, where it eventually merges into Shore Avenue.

supporting documents

General references for this article are:

• Bing Maps ( English ) Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved September 17, 2010.
• Historic USGS Maps of Quincy, Massachusetts ( English ) University of New Hampshire Library. 2001. Retrieved September 17, 2010.
• Quincy, Massachusetts Historical and Architectural Survey ( English ) Thomas Crane Public Library. 1986. Retrieved September 17, 2010.
• Porter Sargent: A Handbook of New England ( English ). Porter Sargent / George H. Ellis Co., Boston 1917.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ National Historic Landmark Nomination - Quincy Homestead ( English , PDF; 122 kB) United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Pp. 22-23. 2005. Retrieved September 17, 2010.
2. ↑ Historic USGS Maps of Quincy, Massachusetts ( English ) University of New Hampshire Library. 2001. Retrieved September 17, 2010.
3. ↑ Pattee, William S .: A History of Old Braintree and Quincy: With a Sketch of Randolph and Holbrook . Green & Prescott, 1879, p. 458.
4. ↑ Saugus Iron Works 1647 Dedication Ceremony Program ( English , PDF), American Society of Mechanical Engineers, June 15, 1975, pp. 2-3. Archived from the original on February 27, 2012 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Accessed September 17, 2010). 
5. ^ ^{A b c} Charles William Eliot: Charles Eliot, landscape architect ( English ). Houghton, Mifflin, Cambridge, MA 1902 (Retrieved September 17, 2010).
6. ^ Division of Urban Parks and Recreation History ( English ) Department of Conservation and Recreation. Retrieved September 17, 2010.
7. ^ Journal of the Senate for the year 1901 . Massachusetts Senate, 1901, p. 295.
8. ^ First Annual Report of the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board January 1, 1902, p. 176.
9. ^ Report of the Board of Metropolitan Park Commissioners January 1904, p. 46.
10. ^ Architectural Record . In: Architectural Record . XXV, January-June 1909, p. 396.
11. ^ Annual Reports of various Public Officers and Institutions for the year 1905 . The Secretary of the Commonwealth, 1906, p. 21.
12. ^ Report of the Board of Metropolitan Park Commissioners January 1908, p. 12.
13. ↑ 403-405, 407-409, 411-413, 415-417, 419-421, 423-425, 427-429 Furnace Brook Parkway . Thomas Crane Public Library. Retrieved September 17, 2010.
14. ↑ Report of the Board of Metropolitan Park Commissioners December 1916, pp. 53-54.
15. ^ Massachusetts Park Commission raises speed limit . In: Automotive Industries . 21, 1909.
16. ^ Abuses of public advertising . In: Atlantic Monthly . 93, Boston, 1904.
17. ↑ 507 Furnace Brook Parkway ( English ) Thomas Crane Public Library. Retrieved September 17, 2010.
18. ^ State Highway Layout Plans ( English ) Massachusetts Department of Transportation. Archived from the original on August 6, 2010. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 17, 2010. 
19. ↑ X-way wonder: ramp in 6 weeks; built for trucks hauling big dig dirt ( English , PDF; 52 kB) The Patriot Ledger. Archived from the original on July 14, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 17, 2010. 
20. ^ Bernazzani Elementary School ( English ) Quincy Public Schools. Retrieved September 9, 2012.
21. ^ Eventide ( English ) The William B. Rice Eventide Home. Retrieved September 17, 2010.
22. ^ Henry Cabot Lodge: Boston ( English ). Longmans, Green, and Co., New York 1902, p. 7, OCLC 4276118 (accessed September 17, 2010).