It took civic visionary Frederick Law Olm­sted, Sr. (1822-1903) almost twenty years (1878-1896) to create the six parks now known as the Emerald Necklace. The Back Bay Fens, Riverway, Olmsted Park, Jamaica Park, Arnold Arboretum and Franklin Park stretch five miles from the Charles River to Dorchester and make up over 1,000 acres of parkland.

The Necklace comprises half of the City of Boston’s park acreage, parkland in the Town of Brookline, and parkways and park edges under the jurisdiction of the Com­monwealth of Massachusetts. More than 300,000 people live within its watershed area.

The Emerald Necklace is the onlyremaining intact linear park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., America’s first landscape architect. As such, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Green and open spaces, rivers and ponds, and a wealth and diversity of trees, shrubs, flowers, wildlife habitat, riparian life, bridges and other structures make up this urban jewel.

The Emerald Necklace Conservancy was created to protect, restore, maintain and promote the landscape, waterways and parkways of the Emerald Necklace park system as special places for people to visit and enjoy.

Since the event’s inception, a portion of the entry fees has been directed towards the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, a non-profit organization working to restore, pre­serve, maintain and promote this historic park system.

The donation benefits the 1,000 acres of greenspace, waterways and parkways so important to our Commonwealth’s quality of life and the health of its citizens. For more information and to download a map of the park system, visit  www.emeraldnecklace.org.