Before the U.S. suburban boom of the post-World War II era, Greater Boston had an extensive suburbia shaped by public transportation and the country’s first metropolitan park system. The Metropolitan Park System, which was established in 1893, provided some of the first parkland, parkway arterials, and general city planning to Boston’s suburbs. The officially named “Metropolitan District” included Boston and 38 surrounding communities.
I described story of this pioneering effort at regional planning and park-making in “How Metropolitan Parks Shaped Greater Boston, 1893-1945,” which is a chapter in the book Remaking Boston: An Environmental History of the City and Its Surroundings (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009). The following weblink will take you to the Google Books page for Remaking Boston. http://books.google.com/books?id=seezgxSMIEwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=remaking+boston&hl=en&sa=X&ei=oMmzUNiSJM7O0QH6joHIBg&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA
The Hub's Metropolis 