History 5: Commonwealth Ave

By Katie Koenig

Commonwealth Avenue is probably my favorite street to walk down when going between campus and Newbury Street or the Hynes Convention Center. It’s striking in how wide the boulevard is compared to surrounding streets. Towering trees provide shade on the large walkway, splitting traffic down the middle of the street. As the leaves yellow and fall now that the weather is cooling, the grassy walkway is awash in a wave of yellow. Brown brick is barely visible through the treetops, making it seem like the lengthy grove is all that exists within the urban markets surrounding it.

It hosts so much vibrant greenery for a reason, though: it’s actually a park in the Emerald Necklace. In the 1880s, the street was set aside for a public boulevard, and construction began 1885 and continued periodically for the next decade. 

Although Commonwealth Ave landowners had high hopes for a bustling market street, very few buildings were constructed during this period. In the early 1890s, an economic depression hit the area, and the only electric streetcar route existed on Beacon Hill, focusing development and populations there instead until 1906 when the city put in a streetcar service along Commonwealth Ave. 

Nowadays, the Green Line runs along Commonwealth near the Esplanade, extending service from the area around Boston University into Brighton.

The Brighton-Allston Historical Society goes into much greater detail in their Commonwealth Ave Photo Collection, providing photographs, maps, and a written history that details the construction throughout the late 1800s. 

Commonwealth Ave was part of the city’s development of Back Bay, in fact, designed as part of their efforts to increase land use and general health in the area, which I go into further detail in my first History of Boston’s Green Spaces post on the Esplanade. In the Emerald Necklace, it connects the Public Garden with the Fens, a natural greenway and picnicking spot in Back Bay.

Frederick Law Olmsted designed this park along with several others in Boston as a part of the city’s greater efforts to increase public recreation and relaxation spots throughout Boston.

It was designed with elegance and quiet in mind, according to Friends of the Public Garden, establishing the atmosphere of this gentrified area where wealthier landowners moved as the area around the bay urbanized, expanding homes and businesses further out of the immediate city.

To focus on recent history, in the 1970s, Clarendon Park was constructed for the benefit of kids under twelve. It introduced a green space with trees and play structures that is not actually connected directly to Commonwealth Ave, but follows the rise of park interest and public spaces in the late 1900s throughout Boston.

Construction has continued throughout the years, with the MBTA renovating the Commonwealth Bridge. The project finished in 2018 and provides an overpass for the Green Line B across the Mass Turnpike and the Worcester Line on the Commuter Rail.

Boston also worked to redesign the street itself, providing wider sidewalks, separate bike, parking, bus, and car lanes along the road, and improving the accessibility of the Green Line trains and bus stops for pedestrians waiting to board.

Although it’s more typical to use as a way to get somewhere else, this street is still part of the Emerald Necklace and provides wide walkways and a small, though long, shaded park area with seating and statues for public use. Not all parks are as obviously labeled and used as the Boston Common, for example, but there are still benefits provided by smaller areas like Commonwealth Ave. I know I’m not the only one to make sure I walk down Commonwealth if I’m traveling between Newbury and the Common, and I’m glad it’s there!