Alewife Brook Parkway
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alewife Brook Parkway is a short parkway in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The parkway runs along Cambridge's western boundary as one section of Massachusetts Route 16, with a total length of about 2.5 miles. Its northern end joins with the Mystic Valley Parkway in a rotary at the Mystic River; its southern end merges into Concord Avenue at the Fresh Pond rotaries, and thereby links to the Fresh Pond Parkway.
The parkway, with surrounding Alewife Brook Reservation (115 acres), forms part of Boston's Metropolitan Park District, established in 1893. It was originally planned by landscape architect Charles Eliot as one section of a web of pleasure roads designed for their aesthetics. Nearby Alewife Brook was straightened and channelized between 1909-1912, with construction of the parkway completed by 1916. Landscaping was performed by the famed Olmsted Brothers firm.
As commuting traffic has grown over the past century, and roadside sprawl has developed, the parkway's original aesthetics have been largely lost. It is now the principal connector between Route 2 and the western suburbs, on the one hand, and downtown Cambridge and Boston on the other. Alewife Station is a prominent feature on the parkway, as are various shopping centers, parking lots, and office and apartment buildings.
