"Other" Mass Ave? - Allston 1890

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urbanmapper

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http://www.wardmaps.com/viewasset.php?aid=1036

This cadestral map from 1890 Brighton (h/t Ward Maps!) shows a lot of interesting things (the race track that predated the rail yard, for example) but also a "Massachusetts (proposed) Ave", going from Packard's Corner north, to the river.

Anyone know the history here? Were they proposing a few different routes for Mass Ave, and the one in Cambridge won out? Is this another concept altogether?

Is there a history of laying out Mass Ave, and deciding which roads should combine to be this early state road? It had to be a State project, right? An early state highway, one could say?

Thanks!
 
And while we're at it, when, exactly was "Mass Ave" unified/imposed on all the older streets that were strung together to make it?

Wikipedia says the various segments north of the Charles were
Front St (near MIT)
Main St (through Central to Harvard)
North St (from Harvard to Alewife Brook)
Arlington Ave (in Arlington, itself a name no older than the Civil War)
Main St (to Lexington)
Monument St (to Battle Green)

But nobody ever comes out and says when "they" (presumably a State-level actor) renamed it across jurisdictions. A likely period would be around 1890 when the Metropolitan District Commission was cleaning up / creating a lot of stuff, the other being Commonwealth Ave (which would be a natural counterpoint to Massachusetts Ave when throwing down avenues and streetcar lines out to the streetcar/bicycle/rail-commuter era suburbs)
 
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Arlington said:
A likely period would be around 1890
Click to expand...

This would match up with the fact that the map is from 1890 - as they were thinking of different routes.

It was also during the 1890s that the track was sold to the rail yard; perhaps that transaction ended the hopes of the Allston Mass Ave, and they had to find another route?
 
I'm beginning to suspect that the Mass Av in Allston would have "gotten there" from Harvard Square via what is now JFK Street (from Sq to the river's edge), meaning that they did, at some point, change their mind, and direct it instead down what where at the the time Main St & Front St to get to the river's edge at what later became the MIT campus.

And today I learned that in the 1890s the parks-and-parkways part was called the Metropolitan Parks Commission until it merged with the Metropolitan Water & Sewer Commission in 1919. (recall that they both had an interest in terraforming the swampy areas around town, such as the Fenway & Alewife) in a combined channelization-drainage-sewer-road-park push.
 
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urbanmapper said:
Indeed, if you follow the map up in the Brighton atlas, this Mass Ave ends in the Business School campus, pointing right at Harvard Square.

http://www.wardmaps.com/viewasset.php?aid=1032
Click to expand...

And Harvard's River Houses weren't even a gleam in anyone's eyes until the 1920s, so I suspect the alignment would have been straight across (not on JFK Street as I mused above), and right through what is now Kirkland House.
 
Indeed. I have emailed BAHS as per dwash59's suggestion; will report if I hear anything. After work I will look more into the history of the Avenues. (Unless anyone beats me to it!)
 
"Massachusetts Ave" was applied to the whole stretch in 1895 after the opening of the Harvard Bridge (in 1891), but the component parts are much older.

North of the Charles:
North of Harvard Square to Billerica was laid out by 1640 and known by various names throughout it's existence: the Highway to Menotomy, the Great Road, the Great Northern Road, and finally North Ave. It was always a contiguous road, however, connecting the towns that were once part of Cambridge (Billerica - "Shawsheen" at that point, the northernmost territory only split off in 1655).

East of Harvard Square to Lafayette Square was also laid out prior to 1640 and connected the village nucleus at Harvard Square to the common grazing lands and salt marshes by Cambridgeport, this segment was known as the Highway to the Great Neck or the Way to Pelham's Island. It was also known as Main St when the West Boston Bridge opened in 1797; "Main St" has obviously been preserved for the easternmost stretch, formerly a causeway to the WBB.

There was a little spur south of Lafayette Sq known by various names, usually the "Front St" extension. It was extended along with the Harvard Bridge in 1891. The short stretch between Bow St and Mass Ave by Harvard Yard was also a later, minor extension.

The map in question references a possible extension to Commonwealth Ave, which was itself only constructed in parts from 1885-1888 and was originally termed "Massachusetts Ave" while under construction. So it's probably a left-over by 1890 of a possible addition to an idea then still in-development; Comm Ave itself took a while to get going.

I believe the current-Mass Ave designation was part of the Boulevard Act programs of the MPC, which widened/boulevardized existing streets in addition to their parkway work. Not so sure on that last point.
 
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