In the 1920's BU purchased the land for the Charles River campus. They owned the land down to the river's edge. In the 1930's as campus construction began the state took half the land by eminent domain to build the Esplanade and then decided to build Storrow Drive.
Otherwise BU today would have a magnificent riverfront campus.
Brookline, would, too... if Boston hadn’t annexed Brighton. Brookline had the riverfront by Cottage Farm, but the land had to be taken for a land connection to Allston (so what neighborhood is BU central part of, anyway?)
I was looking at the 1917 Bromley atlas and I never knew this before, but the same company that developed a lot of Bay State Rd actually had plans and measured lots for what was then river and now is SFR and the Embankment. If you take a look, most of the lights have names on them, which means they were already purchased… So further land expansion into what’s now the basin must have been the original plan. If you take a look, most of the lots have names on them, which means they were already purchased… So the filling project must have been pretty much in the final stages of planning. Since this would’ve predated Storrow by many years, and I think Back Street was what eventually did get built, I wonder what was the fate of those plans? (You can see it on mapjunction.com)