maica Park with Jamaica Pond, passing the Arnold Arboretum, where may be found every tree and shrub that will grow in Boston's climate, reaching Franklin Park, of 520 acres, in West Roxbury, the central feature of the system, and ending with the Marine Park at City Point, South Boston. The Marine Park is connected by a pier with Castle Island, also a part of the park system. This locality is a popular headquarters for yachts, and affords facilities for boating and bathing (municipal bath-houses). The Metropolitan Parks District, in which are included a number of municipalities, is administered by a commission of five members, appointed by the Governor. The scheme comprises such reservations as the Blue Hills (4000 acres), Middlesex Fells (3200 acres), Stony Brook Woods (400 acres), connecting the first-named with the Boston municipal system at the Arnold Arboretum, Lynn Woods (2000 acres), Beaver Brook Reservation, of greater interest than its small extent presupposes, Revere Beach, which is open to public use for several miles, and improvements along the Charles, Mystic, and Neponset rivers.
Education, Libraries, etc. Boston is noted as one of the greatest educational and literary centres of the country. Its public-school system comprises, besides kindergarten, primary, and grammar schools, a liberal number of high schools, and also normal and Latin schools. The Boston Latin School, founded in 1635, and the English High School occupy the largest school building in the United States. Among the higher institutions of learning are Boston University (Methodist Episcopal), Boston College (Roman Catholic), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the medical and dental schools of Harvard University, Tufts College Medical School, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Saint John's Ecclesiastical Seminary (Roman Catholic), and the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy. The New England Conservatory of Music has an enviable reputation, and the Lowell School of Design, the Massachusetts Normal Art School, and the school connected with the Museum of Fine Arts are representative of Boston as a centre of art education. Besides these regular institutions, the great system of free lectures on a wide variety of subjects practically constitutes a great university. The lectures in the Old South Meeting House have been mentioned; the work of the Lowell Institute, which is specially endowed for this purpose, is also worthy of note.
The Boston Public Library maintains fifty-seven or more agencies, including several branch stations with large permanent collections, besides numerous reading-rooms and delivery and deposit stations. In the metropolitan district there are some 30 free libraries, with a total of 1,300,000 volumes, while the collections open to investigators aggregate 3,000,000. Among other noted collections in the city are those of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Boston Athenæum (founded in 1807, with nearly 200,000 volumes), Boston Library Society, Congregational Library, Massachusetts Historical Society (founded in 1791), Massachusetts Horticultural Society (founded in 1829), New England Historic Genealogical Society, State Library, Social Law Library, and Natural History Society, besides those of the leading educational institutions.
Charitable Institutions. In the number and efficiency of institutions of this class, both public and private, Boston holds high rank. Among these, mention may be made of the Massachusetts General Hospital, one of the best equipped in the world; Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital, Carney Hospital (in South Boston), the City Hospital, Women's Charity Club Hospital (in Roxbury), Massachusetts Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary, New England Hospital for Women and Children, Boston Insane Hospital (separate establishments for males and females), Children's Hospital, the Horace Mann School for Deaf Mutes, and the Perkins Institute for the Blind, which has a large library of raised-character books. On islands in the harbor are the principal almshouse, House of Correction, and House of Refuge for Boys.
Theatres, Clubs, Societies, Hotels. The Boston Theatre, seating 3000, is the largest in New England, and the Colonial, Boston Museum, Tremont, Hollis Street, Park, Castle Square, Columbia, Keith's, Howard Athenæum, Bowdoin Square, and Bijou theatres have seating capacities ranging from 1000 to 2000. The Boston Museum, noteworthy for the first appearance of several famous actors, is the oldest in the city. The old Tremont Theatre, which occupied the site of the present Tremont Temple, was also known for the eminent persons who appeared on its stage. The celebrated Boston Symphony Concerts are given in Symphony Hall, one of the finest music halls in the country.
Boston is the home of a large number of historical, scientific, literary, and musical societies. In the last-mentioned class are such well-known organizations as the Apollo, Cecilia, Harvard Musical, Handel and Haydn, and Orpheus. The social and literary clubs include, among numerous others, the Somerset, Algonquin, Saint Botolph, the University, Boston Art, Union, New England Women's, Mayflower, Boston Athletic Association, Appalachian Mountain, the Temple (the oldest in the city), and the Country Club, at Clyde Park, Brookline.
The principal hotels include the Adams House, the Parker House, Young's Hotel, the Hotel Touraine, the Somerset, the Lenox, and the Essex.
Commerce and Industry. Boston is the terminus of the Boston and Albany, the Boston and Maine, the Fitchburg, and the New England railroads, the Old Colony System of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, and the Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn (narrow-gauge) Railroad. There are two large union stations on the water-fronts and on opposite sides of the business district; the northern used by the Boston and Maine and the Fitchburg railroads, and the southern, one of the largest stations in the world, over 800 feet long by 700 feet wide, used by the Boston and Albany and the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroads. There are several regular steamship lines to Europe. The harbor is spacious and safe. It is about 8 miles wide and more than twice as long, with a minimum depth in the main channel of 23 feet at low tide. There are several lights and beacons, and numerous islands, upon certain of which are situated the old Fort Independence and Forts Warren and Winthrop, besides the charitable and reformatory institutions already mentioned.
