Morrissey Boulevard

Morrissey Boulevard is a six-lane divided coastal road in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is owned and maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).

William T. Morrissey Boulevard
Morrissey Boulevard highlighted in red
Maintained byDepartment of Conservation and Recreation
Length2.71 mi[1] (4.36 km)
LocationBoston, Massachusetts
South end Route 3A / Route 203 (Neponset Circle)
North endKosciuszko Circle
Construction
Completion1924

Route description

A parkway, Morrissey Boulevard leaves Neponset Circle at its northeast quadrant as the left two lanes of a three lane exit, with the rightmost lane splitting to the east as an entrance ramp to the Southeast Expressway (Interstate 93). Traveling under the expressway within a landscaped park area fronting the DCR-operated Devine Memorial ice rink,[2] the road then travels north through the Neponset and Popes Hill sections of Dorchester with commercial establishments on both sides. The road splits as it passes under the tracks of the MBTA Red Line rapid transit route at what was previously Popes Hill Station of the Old Colony Railroad.[3][4] A Dunkin' Donuts store now occupies the area between the two roadways. The entrance to Tenean Beach, part of the DCR's Dorchester Shores Reservation, is located off the right roadway in this section.[5]

Morrissey Boulevard proceeds north past the Richard J. Murphy Elementary School and is flanked by heavy commercial development over the following 0.5 miles (0.80 km) to Freeport Street. At Freeport, the road again passes beneath the expressway and travels to the east of it from that point to the end of the boulevard. As a northbound exit ramp from the expressway enters on the right, the view east is dominated by a 140-foot (43 m) LNG storage tank which is painted with Rainbow Swash, an iconic work by Corita Kent that has made the gas tank a Boston landmark.[6] The parkway passes over the inlet from Dorchester Bay to Savin Hill Bay carried by the John J. Beades Memorial Bridge, a drawbridge which opens to allow passage to Dorchester Yacht Club.[7] Savin Hill Beach, Malibu Beach, Savin Hill Yacht Club and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial of Dorchester are located along Morrissey Boulevard in this area adjacent to Savin Hill and featured as part of Boston Harborwalk.[8]

The University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston College High School, and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum are among the institutions located on Morrissey Boulevard in its northernmost stretch beyond Savin Hill. The road ends as it intersects Columbia Road and Day Boulevard at Kosciuszko Circle, adjacent to the Harbor Point section of Dorchester and JFK/UMass subway and commuter rail station.[9]

History

The road was designed as early as 1906 as an urban parkway to be constructed along the route of the Old Colony Railroad to give travelers to Quincy and Massachusetts South Shore locations a way to bypass city streets.[10] In planning for nearly two decades, it was finally completed in 1924 and named Old Colony Parkway.[11] The originally proposed route paralleling the railroad was changed and moved to the shore of Dorchester Bay on the Atlantic Ocean due in part to land reclamation efforts prior to completion of the road. Old Colony Parkway was renamed William T. Morrissey Boulevard in 1951 in honor of the former head of the Metropolitan District Commission, now the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).[11] The older commission constructed many parkways within Greater Boston and the DCR continues to own and maintain Morrissey Boulevard.[10]

It is becoming known for high tide flooding.[12]

Major intersections

The entire route is in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Suffolk County.

mi[13]kmDestinationsNotes
0.00.0 Route 3A / Route 203 (Gallivan Boulevard) – Neponset, Quincy, Ashmont, Forest Hills, Jamaica Plain
0.30.48 I‑93 / US 1 (Route 3) – Boston, Braintree, Cape CodExit 12 on I-93 / US 1 / Route 3
2.64.2Columbia Road / Day Boulevard – Boston, South Boston, QuincyTraffic circle
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
gollark: There would be significant legal issues and also quite likely damage to the box.
gollark: Maybe you would be better off using quantum field theory. Except that doesn't have gravity/general relativity, only special relativity, so you should work out how to unify those?
gollark: We can just say in the technical and artistic merit video that "the robot's projectile trajectory handling maths has relativistic corrections in it and would thus be equipped to fire projectiles near the speed of light, if we actually needed that, had a way to accelerate things that fast, could do so without destroying everything, did not have interactions with the air to worry about, and could safely ignore quantum effects".
gollark: If you really want to you can apply special relativity, sure.
gollark: I don't *think* we need to consider air resistance significantly.

References
  1. Executive Office of Transportation, Office of Transportation Planning - 2007 Road Inventory Archived 2006-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "DCR Skating Rinks". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
  3. O'Regan, Gerry. "MBTA Red Line". nycsubway.org. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
  4. Cassani, Janice. "Pope's Hill". Dorchester Atheneum. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
  5. "Dorchester Shores Reservation". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
  6. "Wartime Visions". National Public Radio. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
  7. Forry, Bill (June 4, 2003). "State Officials: Morrissey Drawbridge Work to End by Late Summer". Dorchester Reporter. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
  8. "Dorchester: Malibu Beach / Savin Hill Beach". Places to go. The Boston Harbor Association. Archived from the original on 9 December 2010. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
  9. "JFK/UMass Statiom". MBTA. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
  10. Seasholes, Nancy S. (2003). Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston. Boston: MIT Press. p. 342. ISBN 978-0-262-19494-5. OCLC 51810749. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
  11. Vrabel, Jim (2004). When in Boston: A Time Line and Almanac. Boston: Northeastern University Press. p. 277. ISBN 978-1-55553-621-3. OCLC 54759462. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
  12. https://www.universalhub.com/2019/dorchester-you-dont-need-boat-go-sea-cruise
  13. Google (May 26, 2019). "Morrissey Boulevard" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved May 26, 2019.

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