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The Common and the Garden: 203 years apart

They're one crosswalk apart on Charles Street, and people use the names interchangeably. But one began as a town cow pasture and the other as a private petition to plant a garden on reclaimed land.

By Fun Boston Published Updated 4 sources About 4 min read

Stand on Charles Street between the two parks and look both ways. To the east, on a slope toward the gold dome of the State House, is Boston Common. To the west, behind flowerbeds, is the Public Garden. Their start dates are 203 years apart, and they were made for very different reasons.

Schematic map of Boston Common and the Public Garden Hand-drawn, not-to-scale diagram. Boston Common, labeled 1634, lies east of Charles Street with Frog Pond near its center and the State House across Beacon Street. The Public Garden, labeled 1837, lies west of Charles Street with a lagoon and footbridge. A dashed orange walking route links six numbered stops: 1 the Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial on Beacon Street, 2 Frog Pond, 3 the Charles Street crossing, 4 the duckling sculptures near Beacon and Charles, 5 the lagoon bridge, 6 the George Washington statue at the Arlington Street gate. BEACON STBOYLSTON ST PARK ST TREMONT ST ARLINGTON ST CHARLES ST STATE HOUSE 1837 PUBLIC GARDEN 1634 BOSTON COMMON FROG POND 123456 N not to scale, drawn by hand for Fun Boston
Original diagram by Fun Boston, not to scale. The numbered stops match our Common-to-Garden walk.

1634: a town buys a pasture

According to the National Park Service, in 1634 "the townspeople of Boston voted to tax each household six schillings for the purchase of William Blackstone's farm to be used as a community common."[1] The Freedom Trail Foundation gives the price as 30 pounds.[2] Blackstone, whose name is also spelled Blaxton, was an Anglican minister and the area's first European settler.[2]

For roughly two centuries it was working land. The Common was a cattle pasture from its creation until the early 1800s. Cows were banned altogether in 1830, and the pasture fences came down in 1836.[1] The Freedom Trail Foundation notes there was a town shepherd.[2]

It was also where the town did its public business, some of it grim. The Park Service lists public hangings and whippings among the Common's early uses.[1] The Freedom Trail Foundation notes that Mary Dyer and three other Quakers were executed there for their religious beliefs.[2]

During the winter of 1775–76, British soldiers dug artillery entrenchments on the Common, and a garrison of 1,700 soldiers camped there.[1]

Sources disagree on size: the Park Service calls today's Common 50 acres,[1] and the Freedom Trail Foundation describes a 44-acre pasture.[2]

1837: a garden on "uninviting ground"

The Public Garden started as someone else's idea. In 1837, according to the Friends of the Public Garden, "the City Council received a petition from a private association of seventeen Bostonians to establish a botanical garden on this uninviting ground."[3] The Friends describe the result as the first public botanical garden in America, on twenty-four acres of reclaimed land.[3]

Its future wasn't settled for more than twenty years. In 1859 the Legislature confirmed the arrangement, and Boston voters ratified it by sixty to one, keeping the land for public use.[3] The layout, with its winding paths and serpentine pond, came from architect George F. Meacham, who won a public design competition that paid $100.[3]

A pasture everyone owned, next to a garden someone had to ask for.

The monuments arrived soon after: the Ether Monument in 1868, the Garden's oldest, and Thomas Ball's equestrian George Washington in 1869. The bronze ducklings everyone photographs are much newer: Nancy Schön made them in 1987, based on Robert McCloskey's 1941 children's book.[3]

And the boats: the Swan Boats have run on the lagoon since 1877, when Robert Paget started them. He and his wife, Julia, took the swan from Wagner's opera Lohengrin, and the Paget family still runs them.[4] They're seasonal. When we checked on Sept. 28, 2026, the operator said they'd be back in April 2027.[4]

The short version

  1. Boston taxes households to buy Blackstone's land as a common.[1]
  2. British troops camp on the Common through the winter of 1775–76.[1]
  3. Cows are banned from the Common. The fences follow in 1836.[1]
  4. Seventeen Bostonians petition for a botanical garden next door.[3]
  5. Legislature and voters (60 to 1) secure the Garden for public use.[3]
  6. The first Swan Boats launch on the lagoon.[4]
  7. The bronze ducklings arrive.[3]

See it for yourself

You can walk both parks, from the Common's oldest corner to the Garden's Washington statue, in about an hour. We've mapped it with six stops.

The Common-to-Garden walk