The Emerald Necklace of Boston
Boston is a large city, a bustling metropolis, however there are many opportunities for hiking right in the heart of this city. There are more than two thousand acres of open parks and green landscapes. This green belt of Boston winds its way through the outlying neighborhoods right through the center of the busy downtown business district. Part of this system is called the Emerald Necklace. This stretch is the masterpiece of park designer Frederick Law Olmsted. Other familiar works that this man created are none other than Manhattan’s Central Park and Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.
When it comes to gardens and park designs, Olmsted is the Rembrandt of the parks and recreation world. For not only did he fully comprehend the elements of design and engineering, but he took the aesthetics into consideration in everything that he created during his lifetime. The Emerald Necklace connects the Public Garden to the Boston Common, and is now the only section of this fairway left that was designed by Olmsted. So respected is he, that this area is now on the National Register of Historic Places. To find a hotel in Boston along this section is to ensure that the visit to the city will be one that is filled with beauty and wonder. For not only is this beautiful, but the work Olmsted put into the Emerald Necklace spanned twenty years, so it is quite impressive as well..
Other elements of the park are connected to this, but those were not his creations. Today, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy is in charge of tending to and protecting the landscaping as well as the paths, walkways and waterways. They see that his vision is fulfilled as Olmsted believed that the older park systems could coexist with the new ones. To combine the two, instead of tearing down one and replacing it with the other, is more time/nature continuum. This is a lovely spot to picnic, to hike through and to simply reflect on the care that one man took, to make so many cities in the United States just a little bit prettier.