Marine Park

As Boston's population grew rapidly in the 1870s, new parks were proposed for every neighborhood, and at the tip of South Boston Frederick Law Olmsted transformed mud flats and marshlands into Marine Park as part of his Emerald Necklace. The Head House became the park's centerpiece, with changing rooms for beachgoers, two cafes, an ice cream parlor, and a large restaurant where German bands played on weekends. Steamboats carried passengers from a nearby public dock to Castle Island before it was connected to the mainland, a crossing that took seven minutes, and thousands of families from across the Boston area traveled to Marine Park in open-air trolleys with blankets, bathing suits, and large box lunches. One hot weekend in 1910 brought 150,000 visitors. Designed by Boston City Architect Edmund Marsh Wheelwright to resemble a medieval German town hall, the half-timbered Head House opened in 1896, fell into neglect during the Great Depression, was heavily damaged by fire in 1942, and was demolished soon afterward. A public dock later became known as Kelly's Landing after an eatery famous for fried clams that operated there from 1927 to 1974. As Marine Park and Pleasure Bay grew more popular, drownings, mainly from boating accidents, also increased, leading to the commissioning in 1896 of a floating lifesaving station with a rescue boat at its stern, anchored in Dorchester Bay until World War II. The Boston Aquarium also stood behind the ice rink from 1912 until 1954.

Boston, Massachusetts · United States