Volume, Character, and Sites of Use The Basin hosts a wide variety of boating he Charles River Basin is a system of paths—parkways, resources. Some powerboat owners find the Charles pathways, and the waterway itself. On warm days in the a convenient berth because of its access to Boston spring and fall the Basin attracts thousands of enthusiastic Harbor. Boaters with no mooring or dock space on visitors. Its narrowness and length generally favor motion, the river put in at the Daly Ramp to fish the upper such activities as bicycling, inline skating, running, and reaches of the Basin and to gain access to the har- rowing. Mobile users congregate on the pathways and the bor. Visitors on boat tours see some of the most river channel and often compete intensely for them. Con- spectacular and iconic views of Boston and spicuously absent from the busy pathways during peak Cambridge in the Lower Basin. For sailors the T times are children and Lower Basin is for practical purposes a wide lake, the elderly—people with room to set up triangular sailing courses who might not feel between the Harvard and Longfellow bridges. For comfortable with the canoeists and kayakers, the upper stretch of the crowding and speed. Basin offers a green, natural corridor to explore.
THE CAMBRIDGE BOAT Because of the high Four yacht clubs—two in the Upper Basin and two in the Lower CLUB, BUILT IN , WAS MOVED TO ITS PRESENT student population in Basin—count a total of members and auxiliary members and guests. SITE TO MAKE WAY FOR the Lower Basin, warm A inventory showed approximately motorized craft berthed in AN EXTENSION OF spring and fall week- the Basin each summer, excluding rowing and sailing program launches. MEMORIAL DRIVE. ends tend to be high-use periods. Foot and boat traffic is heavier in the Of these, are berthed in the Upper Basin and must travel the length of lower section (below Herter Park) than in the upper section, because of the river to reach Boston Harbor. The Daly boat ramp supports a high the three universities and the greater population densities downstream. level of use—about fifty launches on weekend days in the summer. Upwards of one hundred thousand people drive along Basin parkways every day. Drivers consti- 13 tute the largest group of users. Uses & ofperception the Charles River Basin Far more people boat on the Charles than is immediately apparent. Private rowing club members total , (, members and auxiliary members and guests). Educational institu- There are also four sailing facilities: three belong to educational institu- tions contribute an additional , users (, club members and tions and have a total membership of roughly ,; one is public, with , auxiliary or seasonal members). about , members. 1010 Memorial Drive Tot Lot Mount Auburn St. Brat Harvard tle St. Memorial Longfellow Square Cambridge Driv Park Boat Club e Buckingham, John F. M a Brown & Nichols M ss Kennedy ou . Charles River lvd. nt Mt. Auburn B Au Park bu Eliot Bridge Canoe and Kayak .K. rn Cemetery .F St. J e. Belmont Hill Weeks Ave. Charles Av Watertown Boathouse Newell Bridge River Dam idge l Hell’s Rd. Boathouse Weld Boathouse River Boat Tours Square oo Half Acre C Volleyball Main St. Blvd. t. Grove St. Herter East Charles Gate . d. wy gh Anderson v k Park vard S Yacht Club P Basketball d Bl nou Har Cambridge n Publick Theatre . Bridge t. Watertown Mt. Auburn St. ree ld N La S G Western bridge s Fie le r Tennis Courts Dam Arsenal St. Cam a Artesani Playground Avenue Bridge Br h oad Public Boat Mooring C Watertown lidge Ave. s w Lee Pool Coo dier Western Ave. ay Galen Street Henderson Sol North Beacon St. Lederman Field wn St. Bridge Arsenal St. Boathouse Watertown Greenough Blvd. Main St. Waterto Basketball The Arsenal n Ave. Longfellow Charles Yacht Club Wester M ass River Street a Bridge G Squibnocket Arsenal Street chus Cambridge St. alen St. Blvd. ett ve Playground Park Allston-Brighton Bridge Dri Rd. M River Greenough Bridge s rial Harvard Sailing emo o Daly Community Beacon Nonantum Rd. Community Road Mem Charles River Boating Av Rowing Field Field ria Hill Public Boat e Yacht Club St. l Cambridgeport rse Soldiers n u Birmington Parkway ue Co Newton Launch bridge Riverside MIT Sailing ng Union Boat Club Daly Rink Cam Raci Newton Yacht Club North Beacon Pool Boat Club Hatch Shell North Beacon St. Harvard North Beacon Mass. Magazine Beach Pool Bridge C s h Street Bridge Driv ve se ve ar Boston T l Dri Dri e u Magazine e l ria s Common r o St. np Beach Mem MIT Boathouse Sailing Cour Public ik Garden e e DeWolfe Exercise Cours orrow BU Boathouse St n St. Allston Course owing Beaco Landing R BU Sailing Exercise The Esplanade Course h Ave. Boston Storrow nwealt Drive Commo University Commonw ealth Bridge Ave. Kenmore Back Bay Square Massachusetts
Turnpike M a sschus
Fenway ett s Back Av
Bay e. Fens
The Basin includes eleven rowing boat- with thirty-five boats. Two sightseeing compa- Basin are unstructured and informal: jogging, houses—one public, three private, and seven nies, the Charles River Boat Company and the sunbathing, cycling, picnicking, walking dogs, belonging to educational institutions—that Boston Duck Tours, put approximately , playing volleyball, and bird watching. Groups sponsor twenty-nine different programs. Com- and , sightseers respectively on the river and individuals looking for broader areas for munity Rowing, a public program, sponsors each year. informal use and passive enjoyment turn to twelve of these programs. These eleven clubs parts of the Esplanade, Magazine Beach, Daly together have about , members and , The new Charles River Dam provides pas- Field and Herter Park. 14 seasonal and auxiliary members. In , almost sage between the Charles , rowing shells were kept in boathouses River Basin and Boston along the Charles, along with canoes and Harbor. About , boats kayaks. Row As One, another public program, use the Gridley Locks at the teaches rowing to high school and junior high new dam over the course of school girls from Boston. a year and hundreds on an average summer weekend. Commercial rental and sightseeing operations bring the largest number of people onto the The Basin’s parklands water. Charles River Canoe and Kayak, a boat offer diverse areas for differ- rental facility at Herter Park, put approximately ent users. Most of the activi- six thousand people on the Charles in ties that occur daily in the Herter Park attracts some of the most diverse Lederman Field, Magazine Beach, and Daly reading, sketching, quiet conversation, and uses in the Basin. A popular place for family Field are most often used, usually on weekends other passive activities. picnics and volleyball, it also contains two com- and in the early evenings during summer and • John F. Kennedy Park, at the northwest munity gardens and is the terminus of the popu- early fall. corner of John F. Kennedy Street and lar Run of the Charles race each spring. Memorial Drive, is intended to be a passive The balance between active and passive uses space; students often read here or play infor- In a creative effort to increase park enjoy- varies in each of the twelve parks within the Basin: mal games of Frisbee. The park is the com- ment, two stretches of parkway are shut down • Lederman Field is entirely given over to monwealth’s memorial to President John F. on Sundays from the last weekend in April athletic fields. Kennedy. through the last weekend in October. Highly • The Esplanade’s pathways, banks, and facili- • Longfellow Park and Peabody Park, just popular Riverbend Park is created when ties are heavily used, so heavily used at times west of John F. Kennedy Park, link the Memorial Drive is set aside for pedestrians from that quiet space for contemplation is hard to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow House with River Street to Fresh Pond Parkway. Similarly, find. What quiet areas exist are all at the water’s the river. Users sometimes play volleyball in Greenough Boulevard between North Beacon edge, on the islands, and at the landings. this flexible, grassy area. A volunteer group and Arsenal Street in Watertown is also closed maintains a tot lot off to auto traffic on Sundays. to one side and has planted the banks of The formal granite steps along the Esplanade the river with daf- provide formal places for people to get close to fodils, creating a spec- the water. Augmenting the steps, the wooden tacular springtime landings within the Basin are popular with sun- display. bathers and boaters. Only two of them are • Hell’s Half Acre, a handicapped-accessible. The landings in Water- passive area next to town Square, at Herter Park, and along the Gerry’s Landing, is the 15 Esplanade are frequently used for sunbathing, largest wetland in the fishing, and peaceful contemplation. Basin. American •At Magazine Beach, a large portion of the Legion Marsh Post and a parking lot The Basin offers numerous facilities for team park is occupied by athletic fields, a spray occupy much of the open area by the Eliot sports and structured athletics—seven softball pool, and a swimming pool, but the picnic Bridge. fields, two soccer fields, two pairs of tennis courts, areas are heavily used, and the park is very • Herter Park has a fairly even balance one skating rink, three swimming pools (one of popular for dog-walking. between active and passive uses. Flexible which is closed), two exercise courses, two bas- • The banks between the Western Avenue fields support a wide variety of informal uses. ketball courts, eight playgrounds, and nineteen and Anderson Bridges fronting Harvard • Herter Park West (including the boathouses and yacht clubs. The facilities at University are heavily used for sunbathing, Northeastern University Boat House) was once an MDC maintenance yard and has BASIN SPECIAL EVENTS, ample open space for passive or active uses. CONCERT/ THEATRE EVENT ROAD RACE WALKATHON TOTAL • The Meadow at Greenough Boulevard and Artesani/Herter 50 13 1 5 69 Arsenal Street is quite small and has no Cambridge Parkway 0211 4 structured uses. Charles River Road 0010 1 • Squibnocket Park (North Beacon Street), Charlesgate 0 0 1 1 2 with its open view of the Upper Basin, is a Daly Field 0 6 1 1 8 popular spot for sunbathing and picnicking. Esplanade 0 4 8 3 15 • Daly Field’s wide expanse of parkland is Hatch Shell 43 17 1 10 71 JFK Park 0 1 0 0 1 almost entirely occupied by athletic fields, Lechmere Canal 0 0 0 1 1 parking lots, and the Daly Rink. Lederman Field/Lee Pool 0 4 15 3 22 • The Meadow at Charles River Road is Magazine Beach 0 7 0 0 7 evenly balanced between unprogrammed Memorial Drive 0 2 5 3 10 space for passive uses and facilities for active Riverbend Park 0 1 0 1 2 uses. It is not well used, however, in part Weeks Footbridge 0 1 0 0 1 because of drainage problems. 93 58 34 29 214
Special events bring up to half a million peo- , there were twenty-nine walkathons, thirty- Special events and their impacts are concen-
BOSTON POPS CONCERTS ple from across the region into the Basin, peo- four road races, and forty-three concerts at the trated in a few places: the Hatch Shell, the AND FUNDRAISING ple who might otherwise not enjoy this special Hatch Shell, fifty performances at the Publick Esplanade, Lederman Field, and Herter Park. WALKS DRAW ENORMOUS setting. Two annual rowing events, the Head of Theatre in Herter Park, fifty-eight events on the The Hatch Shell hosted one-third of the special CROWDS TO THE HATCH the Charles and the Run of the Charles, attract water, including fishing tourna- events along the Charles in , SHELL FROM THE SPRING TO THE FALL. hundreds of thousands in the fall and spring. In ments, sailing regattas and crew On any given including all of the concerts and ten races. Two of the annual walka- day, 90,000 to of the twenty-nine walkathons. 16 thons, the Walk for Hunger and the 120,000 drivers Nearly half of all special events in AIDS Action Walk, attract between use the parkways took place on the Esplanade, , , and participants, of the Basin. the Hatch Shell, the Lee Pool, and eleven each had a few thousand Lederman Field, including sixteen of participants, and sixteen each had a twenty-nine walkathons and twenty- few hundred participants. The Cambridge River five of thirty-four road races (see table). Festival, staged annually between Western Avenue and Anderson Bridges, brings thou- On any given day , to , drivers sands to visit craft booths, food vendors, and use the Charles River Basin parkways. Traffic is entertainers. two to three times heavier on the south shore- line of the Basin than the north shoreline. Daily volumes increase significantly from west to east: than once a week on up to , cars travel on Memorial Drive by average for strolling, MIT each day, compared to , to , a relaxing, attending day on Charles River Road; , cars use concerts or attending Storrow Drive daily, compared to , on special events. Use Nonantum Road. Trucks and buses are excluded was fairly evenly dis- from these roads to maintain the character of the tributed along the park setting and increase the pleasure of driving entire Basin and the parkways. between its north and south banks. While The User Survey the south bank has higher levels of use at peak An extraordinary proportion of respondents The MDC commissioned a telephone survey times, the people using the north side use it expressed a positive attitude about the Basin. of households in zip codes bordering the more frequently. Peak-use times are afternoons Ninety percent feel that the Boston area would Charles River Basin. No businesses or visiting and weekends. Summer use far surpasses use dur- be less appealing without the Charles River Basin. users were included in the sample. The survey ing other seasons. Ninety percent feel comfortable within it during did include students in college dormitories. the day. Eighty-six percent feel the parks and The residential respondents were often the The survey asked respondents to list and paths are well maintained. Eighty-two percent adult members of a household rather than chil- rank how they used the Basin. The top twelve feel the parkways are attractive and efficient. dren, so the survey results are somewhat biased responses were, in order of frequency: Seventy-three percent feel the Basin is a great toward an older user group. •Walking for pleasure place to be with children. These are extremely •Attending concerts or events positive numbers. The questions covered a broad range of top- •Relaxing in the park ics, from how often people used the Basin to •Driving on the parkways Half of all respondents, however, feel that their opinions about its maintenance. The sur- •Running or walking for exercise the level of automobile traffic spoils their enjoy- 17 vey found a tremendous awareness of and •Biking ment of the parkland and that crossing the appreciation for the •Using Riverbend parkways to get to parklands is dangerous and river among park users A survey commissioned by the MDC Park in summer difficult. A sizable minority (forty-five percent) in abutting neighbor- suggests that the public wants the •Picnicking feels the Basin’s pathways are congested, and hoods and a high fre- Basin to be easier to reach, quieter •Enjoying the out- thirty-six percent of respondents do not feel safe quency of use. Though and better maintained. doors with children in the parks at night. some had specific con- •Inline skating cerns, residents were generally pleased with the •Walkathons Some of the changes users desire would Basin’s condition and upkeep.More than sixty •Informal sports address the problems they identify, while others percent of those surveyed used the Basin more Half of these uses, including the three most fre- would create more amenities. Ninety-one per- quent, are passive activities. Watertown Hell’s Half Acre Watertown Dam
Herter Park Squibnocket Park
Herter Park West
Allston
Daly Field
Newton
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Charles RiverIllustrative Basin Master Plan John F. Kennedy Park
Historic Charles River Dam
The Cambridge Front
Cambridge Charlesbank Park
Cambridge Esplanade
Magazine Beach Hatch Shell
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The Esplanade
Boston
Charlesgate cent of users want better lighting at night; % user types. Users also frequently called for more parkways, adding more wading pools and foun- want additional bathrooms. Although % of benches and places to sit, more wildlife areas, tains, limiting craft on the water, increasing users stated that the parks and paths were well more park rangers, and more convenient parking. access to the water’s edge, enacting more tem- maintained, % requested better maintenance. porary road closures, and converting sports Eighty-six percent asked for easier and safer The survey found that a majority of respon- fields to informal uses. The public wants the pedestrian access to the Basin, and an equal dents favored slowing traffic on the parkways, Basin to be easier to reach, quieter, and better proportion recommended separating pathways by clearing more views to the water, narrowing the maintained
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