Fenway (parkway) - Naming

Naming

In 1887, the stretch of parkways from Boylston Street to Jamaica Pond were originally referred to as a single group called "the Parkway" by the Boston Park Commissioner, with the current names Fenway, Jamaicaway, and Riverway being authorized by the park commission later that year. Provisional names for the Fenway suggested in 1885 included Rumford, Longview, and Riverdale, although the park commission deemed that naming should pass the following criteria. For the entire parkway system, each roadway name had to end in a consistent manner, "naturally aid in making the idea of continuity and unity familiar to the public, and, if such termination were short, simple and common, it would be in various ways a convenience". Additionally they wished for the names to be "derived from some topographical or historical local circumstance". For example, "instead of being called the Riverdale Road be called Riverway". In an 1879 report outlining the plan for the parks and roadways, the area through which the Fenway would travel was described as a "fenny meadow". The park commission subsequently chose the "Back Bay Fens" as the name for the park and "Fenway" as the name for the parkway because it traveled through it.

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