CultureNOW - Charles River Esplanade, MIT: Peter Vanderwarker

Charles River Esplanade, MIT

Podcasts

	Landmaking in Boston - Nancy Seasholes	about
	The Development of Landmaking Techniques - Part 1 - Nancy Seasholes	about
	The Development of Land Making Techniques - Part 2 - Nancy Seasholes	about
	The Development of the Esplanade - Nancy Seasholes	about
	The Charles River Esplanade - Susan Park	about
	Esplanade - Lajos Heder	about

Description

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ABOUT THE CHARLES RIVER ESPLANADE
Originally known as the Boston Embankment, the Charles River Esplanade was originally created in 1910 as part of the Charles River Dam project. Between 1928 and 1936, it was expanded to create more park space. It originally included the strip of land occupied now by Storrow Drive, so when the roadway was built in 1949, the park went through another expansion in order to reclaim some of its lost land.

ABOUT THE HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS
His hands and arms are trussed in chains and locks as Harry Houdini prepares to leap into the Charles River. Spectators line the Harvard Bridge in the background. Soon after disappearing under water, Houdini will emerge triumphant with his locks miraculously open.

Such 'impossible' escapes were Houdini’s forte, and they made him easily the most famous magician in American history. Another Houdini feat was to let himself be padlocked into a wooden crate, which was then thrown into a river. And in another trick – one we don’t think we’d want to witness – he would swallow loose thread and needles and then regurgitate them with all the needles threaded.

In the 1908 photo, Houdini is standing on the Charles River embankment near what today is MIT. For the new photo, we asked some fans of the river to reenact the scene. Standing in for Houdini is John DeVillars. Back in 1995, DeVillars was regional administrator of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, from which position he promoted the goal of a “swimmable” Charles by 2005. Although we’re not quite there yet, the once polluted river is a lot cleaner than it used to be, and DeVillars says it is indeed swimmable except after heavy rains. The chief remaining problem is old sediments that still line the bottom. DeVillars, we noticed, didn’t actually jump in.

Standing next to DeVillars is Renata von Tscharner, founder and president of the Charles River Conservancy, a group that works to improve the Charles and its parklands. With her are members of her staff. Von Tscharner claims Houdini was in greater danger of dying from waterborne contagion than from drowning. She thinks of herself as a successor to noted landscape architect Charles Eliot, one of the creators of Boston’s park system, who wrote of the Charles in 1892, 'People who live near it are well acquainted with the peculiar odor.'

Harry Houdini was born in Budapest as Ehrich Weiss and came to the United States as a toddler. He died in 1926, at the age of 52, from complications of appendicitis, probably exacerbated by a punch to the stomach from a college student in Canada. Houdini routinely invited such blows, but on this occasion he was unprepared and failed to firm his muscles.

When he died, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a memorable headline: 'Death Chains Balk Houdini in Battle to Break Shackles of Grim Reaper.'"

-Robert Campbell and Peter Vanderwarker, "CITYSCAPES - Charles River Magic," Boston Globe, 12 September 2004

map not available at this time.

Location

Charles River Esplanade & Storrow Drive
Boston, MA 02114
United States

Nearby Items

Arthur Fiedler Memorial		155 feet
David Ignatius Walsh		641 feet
Back Bay		671 feet
Maurice J. Tobin		841 feet
118 Beacon Street		950 feet
Trimbloid X		0.2 miles
Gibson House Museum		0.2 miles