The city of Boston was founded in 1630 on a peninsula which jutted out into a harbor.  The shape of the land and its proximity to water made the region seem defendable and therefore an ideal location for settlement.  The original contour and topography of Boston, however, was the direct result of seismic activity millions of years ago and glacial movements thousands of years ago.  The major earthquakes that shook the area in prehistoric times created a basin which was eventually flooded by the nearby Atlantic Ocean, forming bays.¹   By the seventeenth century, the Kenmore Square region of Boston was still under water at the intersection of the Muddy and Charles Rivers, as shown in the map from 1777 above. ²   Sandwiched between salt meadows on the northwest and southeast, Kenmore Square was not actually filled until the end of the nineteenth century.  Throughout its history, the growth of the site has been continually linked to ongoing natural and environmental processes coupled with the alteration of the land by human beings.  Kenmore Square has most notably been influenced by distinctive patterns of sunlight and pollution.  Although the locations of maximum and minimum light and the diversity of pollutants that permeate the site have changed considerably in the last 150 years, they continue to trigger the development of microclimates and to directly control the propagation of plant and animal populations.

            In Boston, the early nineteenth century was characterized by a significant population expansion.  This increase strained the natural resources of the city and the public began looking for new water sources and new ways to get power for mills.  In 1821, the Mill Dam was built, enclosing the section of the Charles River that is now the Back Bay and setting the seeds for the development of Kenmore Square which began approximately seventy years later.   The pool of stagnant water between the dam and the river was the first form of pollution that influenced the development of Kenmore Square.  The extent of this contamination is evident in the following quotation from Anne Whiston Spirn’s The Granite Garden :

The water contamination predicted by the Mill Dam’s opponents was rapidly realized.  Both the Muddy River and the Stony Brook emptied into the Back Bay Basin; so did all the sewers of Roxbury.  Tidal action was impeded not only by the dam, but also by the two railroad causeways that crisscrossed it.³

In 1849, the Boston Health Department ordered that the region which is now the Back Bay and the southeastern corner of Kenmore Square be filled in.  By the 1880s, the prominent landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted “proposed a plan for the remainder of the Back Bay that addressed both sanitation and flooding [whose] central feature was a park called the Fens”⁴   which borders what is now Kenmore Square.  The two railroads continued to pass through the site transporting passengers into and out of Boston.  Kenmore Square remained a transportation hub even after the railroads declined in the early twentieth century and Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue both became major thoroughfares for automobiles.





            Light is among the most significant driving forces behind the natural and environmental processes which shape Kenmore Square.  The map above is an aerial view of Kenmore Square.⁵   Notice the teal areas along the sidewalks of Commonwealth Avenue and the western portion of Bay State Road.  A similar shade of blue-green is seen west of the Citgo sign on top of the Boston University Bookstore.  From careful observation, it is evident that these teal regions represent the shadows cast by the buildings in Kenmore Square.  Since the location of the sun in the sky does not remain stationary, the pattern, position, and extent of the shadows change slightly throughout the day and from season to season.  Nevertheless, the intensity of sunlight in this photograph is obviously strong and there is no snow on the ground or on the buildings.  As a result, it can be inferred that the picture was taken during the summer months of the year in the early afternoon.  After visiting the site during mid-March just before sunset, the locations of maximum shadows seemed similar to those in the photograph.  For example, the sidewalk along the south side of Commonwealth Avenue was markedly darker than the sidewalk on the north side of the street.  Thus, it is likely that the slight shifts in the shadow patterns on the site are negligible and that some sections of Kenmore Square receive considerably less sunlight annually than others.

            Pollution has also impacted the development of Kenmore Square.  When the first buildings on the site were being constructed at the turn of the twentieth century, two railroad lines passed through Kenmore Square.  Most likely powered by steam, these trains transported dirt and soot in addition to passengers.  The combustion of coal and wood in order to heat the water to drive the engines also resulted in the production of an excess of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in the air.  The same pollution continued to contaminate Kenmore Square as the site was transformed from a center of railroad transportation to a major intersection for automobile traffic.    According to Spirn,

Poisonous gasses hang in the air above the street and toxic dust coats the roadway and sidewalk.  Cars, buses, and trucks congest the streets, accelerating and braking, emitting streams of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and bits of lead and unburned fuel.⁶

Thus, the gasoline engines in the modern cars also emitted a great deal of toxic exhaust, especially during periods of heavy traffic which is a defining feature of Kenmore Square.  The combination of these excess gases with the dirt, soot, and remnants of fuel critically influenced the variety of flora and fauna that would be able to survive and prosper on the site.

            The first major effect of the distribution of sunlight and shadows coupled with the pollution created by automobiles is the development of microclimates within the confines of the site.  It is obvious from walking through Kenmore Square in March that there are some sections which are significantly warmer than others.  Observe the component of the park between both sides of Commonwealth Avenue in the photo on the left below.

Figure 3:  Photograph of the Remaining Snow in the Park

Figure 4:  Photograph of the Remaining Snow on the South Side of Commonwealth Avenue

            Moreover, the varying intensity of light throughout the Square greatly affects the ability for trees in certain locations to grow successfully.  The trees along the western part of Bay State Road outside of the boat shaped Myles Standish Hall are much smaller and appear much less healthy than those across the street near the brownstone residences.  This can be seen in the picture below.