1901 Walker Map of Boston Common and the Public Garden, Boston

An extraordinary level of detail.

This is a 1901 George H. Walker and Co. large-format folding map of Boston Common and the Public Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the most detailed commercial map of these public spaces ever produced, recording many individual trees, floral displays, and tulip beds, among other features.

A Closer Look

The map is oriented towards the north-northwest, so that Beacon St. forms a horizontal line at top. Adjacent streets are labelled as well as the Massachusetts State House and the nearby Macullar, Parker Co. (which sponsored the map). Features within the Common and Public Garden are recorded to an unusually high level of detail, with individual trees and flower beds noted, the trees being divided into native and foreign species (an accompanying index provides even more information on the flora of the public spaces, including their Latin taxonomic names). Prominent features, most of which still stand, are also labelled, including the (Parkman) Bandstand, Frog Pond, Brewer Fountain, Soldiers and Sailors Monument, and George Washington Statue.

At this time, the Common and Public Garden had recently undergone some important changes as a result of the construction of the Tremont St. Subway, the first subway in North America. Prior to that time, the area of the Common and Public Garden along Charles St. sat at a relatively low elevation and had become a fetid dumping ground. But the problem was solved when dirt excavated for the subway line was used to level off those portions of the parks, removing the dumping ground.

The Tremont St. Subway

The Tremont St. Subway, opened in 1897, is widely considered the first true subway in the United States and emerged from Boston's efforts to relieve severe street-level congestion caused by the city's expanding electric streetcar system. By the mid-1890s, trolleys clogged downtown streets to the point of paralysis, prompting Massachusetts lawmakers to authorize the Boston Transit Commission to build an underground route beneath Tremont Street. Construction moved rapidly despite engineering challenges posed by the area's dense urban fabric and the need to excavate beneath Boston Common without disturbing its historic landscape. When the first segment opened on September 1, 1897, it provided an unprecedented grade-separated corridor for streetcars, demonstrating the feasibility of urban rapid transit and earning Boston a pioneering place in American transportation history.

Two of the earliest and most important stations, Boylston and Park St., were both located at the edge of Boston Common and became central nodes in the early system, especially after the Cambridge Subway (later the Red Line) opened in 1912 and connected at Park St. As can be seen here, inbound streetcars initially ran aboveground until they reached the Public Garden, whereupon they went underground via the Public Garden Incline and continued to Boylston St., Park St., and beyond underground. In 1914, this incline was closed and filled in when the underground portion of the subway was extended to Kenmore Square, where a new incline was constructed.

Boston Common

Boston Common, established in 1634, is generally considered the oldest public park in the United States. Originally set aside as a shared common space for grazing livestock and for militia musters, it evolved over the centuries into a central gathering place for public events, political rallies, and leisure. By the mid-19th century, the Common had already seen substantial reshaping: pathways had been laid out, ornamental plantings added, and the Frog Pond was adapted for both summertime and wintertime recreation. Its location - bordered by Beacon Hill, Downtown, and the emerging Back Bay - ensured that it remained a focal point of Boston's civic identity, even as the city expanded outward.

In the late 19th century, Boston Common underwent a new wave of improvements. Although Boston did not embrace the City Beautiful Movement as comprehensively as cities like Chicago or Washington, D.C., its park commissioners adopted many of the movement's principles of beautification, order, and the uplifting power of well-designed urban spaces. The Common and the adjacent Public Garden benefited from enhanced landscaping, the addition of formal walkways, improved lighting, and the removal or reconfiguration of older, cluttered features. This period saw a conscious effort to balance picturesque elements with neoclassical order, creating viewsheds, promenades, and open lawns designed to cultivate civic pride and encourage healthy recreation.

The Public Garden

The history of the Public Garden is closely connected with that of Boston Common, though the question of whether it was of the same character as the Common or whether the land on the southern end of the Common that became the Public Garden could be sold was debated for decades. The Public Garden is also similar to the neighboring Back Bay in that much of it was previously mudflats, which were filled in during the late 18th and 19th centuries.

In the late 18th century, the site of the Public Garden was used as a ropewalk after a 1794 fire destroyed many existing ropewalks in the city. Afterwards, the land was filled in using gravel removed from Mount Vernon, and it significantly increased in value. The ropemakers planned to sell the land off for development, but faced strong public opposition. In 1824, the city purchased land back from the ropemakers, and finally, in 1837, the Public Garden was established. However, legal disputes (not resolved until 1856) over the character and use of the land continued, hampering any plans for its use. Some in the city government still wanted to develop the land as housing, while others believed it to be public land that ought to be improved as a proper park.

As a result of these debates, initially much of the Public Garden was open grassland, like the Common, rather than a garden in the sense of a cultivated, planned landscape. This changed once the legal disputes were resolved, and in 1859, the Committee on the Common and Public Squares approved a new plan that included planned walkways, a pond, and an iron fence perimeter, closely resembling the Public Garden as it remains today.

Publication History and Census

This map was prepared by George H. Walker and Co. for the clothiers Macullar, Parker Co. in 1901. Due to confusion over the title and publisher, it appears in five distinct OCLC listings, but in total is only held by 8 institutions: the National Agricultural Library, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Boston Public Library, the University of Virginia, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the Phillips Library of the Peabody Essex Museum, and the New York Public Library (which records the scale as 1:5000, perhaps an alternate printing but more likely a cataloging error). Very scarce to the market.

Cartographer

George Hiram Walker (January 4, 1852 - November 14, 1927) was a Boston based publisher of books, views, and maps active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Springfield, Vermont, Walker started his life as a dry goods merchant but developed an active interest in publishing during the early 1870s. Walker began publishing in 1878 when he partnered with an unknown New York Firm. Two years later, Walker brought the operation in house by partnering with his brother, Oscar W. Walker, in the opening of a lithography studio at 81 Milk Street, Boston. Shortly thereafter the firm expanded to new offices at 160 Tremont Street, Boston. The Walker brothers produced a large corpus of works, most of which focused on travel and tourism in New England. Walker also established the Walker-Gordon Milk Laboratory with Dr. Thomas Morgan Rotch and Gustave Gordon. This interesting investment was based on the premise that infant deaths could be avoided by providing higher quality milk. The company eventually became a great success, producing a high-quality cow milk that closely resembled human breast milk. In the process the Walker-Gordon laboratory developed many of the dairy health standards that are still with us today. Walker married Irene L. Loud on March 25, 1885.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good. Some transference and soiling corresponding to original fold metric. A few fold intersections reinforced with archival tissue on verso.

References

Boston Public Library, Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, G3764.B6 1901.G4x. OCLC 317749944, 24191624, 1323496935, 71054139.