Hatch Memorial Shell

On June 3, 1893, the Metropolitan Park Commission was established by the Massachusetts state legislature to oversee and maintain the Metropolitan Park System. The last nine miles of the Charles River (from Watertown to Boston Harbor) was still a tidal firth. A plan was formed to dam the mouth of the river creating the fresh water Charles River Basin. In 1910, construction of the Charles River Dam was completed, and shortly after the newly landscaped banks of the river became know as the Charles River Esplanade.

The Esplanade went through a vast expansion beginning in 1928, which widened and lengthened the park land. The improvements were aided by a one million dollar donation from Helen Osbourne Storrow, in memory of her husband James. (Today, the route which runs alongside the Esplanade, Storrow Drive, honors their name.) It was during this expansion that the first lagoon was built, as well as the Music Oval, where a temporary concert shell was placed. The summer of 1929 was the first year Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops performed on the Esplanade. In 1941, the construction of the new music shell took place with a $300,000 trust, donated by benefactor Maria Hatch, to build a memorial for her late brother, Edward.