Public Garden

The Public Garden is a twenty-four-acre green space defined by a serpentine lagoon and a Victorian cast-iron fence. Established in eighteen thirty-seven, it holds the distinction of being the first public botanical garden in the United States. The site was once tidal marshland on the edge of the Charles River, where Bostonians historically gathered to dig for clams. In the early nineteenth century, the city began filling this area with soil moved from Beacon Hill to create a permanent public resource.