Baxter Boulevard

{{Short description|Boulevard and parkway in Portland, Maine}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox street | name = Baxter Boulevard | marker_image = | image = Back Cove Trail 2025.jpg | caption = Pictured in 2025 | length_mi = 1.91 | length_ref = | location = Portland, Maine | maint = City of Portland, Maine | direction_a = Northeast | terminus_a = Bates Street & {{jct|state=ME|I|295}} | direction_b = Southwest | terminus_b = {{jct|state=ME|US|302|ME|100}} Forest Avenue & Bedford Street | construction_start_date = | completion_date = 1917 }} '''Baxter Boulevard''' is a boulevard and parkway in Portland, Maine. The road, around {{Convert|1.91|mi}} long, served as the means to head north from downtown Portland before Tukey's Bridge, now on Interstate 295 (I-295), was built. The road was part of U.S. Route 1 (US 1) until May 2007. The parkway wraps around the west side of Back Cove estuary basin.

The parkway and roadway began as an initiative of Mayor James Phinney Baxter, for whom it is named. It was envisioned as one of four parks in the city (along with Deering Oaks, Western Promenade and Eastern Promenade) which would encircle the city. The parkway was designed by the noted landscape design firm Olmsted, Olmsted and Eliot in 1895.<ref name=NRHP>{{cite web|url={{NRHP url|id=89001706}}|title=NRHP nomination for Back Cove|publisher=National Park Service|accessdate=2015-10-29}}</ref> Property owners donated the then-useless land next to the cove and the walking and biking path were filled in to create the Back Cove Trail. Originally called the '''Back Cove Boulevard''', the parkway opened in 1917. It covers {{convert|30|acre|ha}}.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=YNTkhcR2AEAC&dq=%22Baxter+Boulevard%22&pg=PA291 Portland City Guide] Page 291</ref>

Tree planting began on the Boulevard in 1921 as a memorial to World War I victims.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Adams |first1=Herb |editor1-last=Holtwijk |editor1-first=Theo H.B.M. |editor2-last=Shettleworth Jr. |editor2-first=Earle G. |title=Bold vision: the development of the parks of Portland, Maine |date=1999 |publisher=Published for Greater Portland Landmarks, Inc. by Phoenix Pub |isbn=0939761068}}</ref>

Baxter Boulevard was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic landscape district in October 1989.<ref>{{NRISref|2010a}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:Baxter family Category:U.S. Route 1 Category:1917 establishments in Maine Category:Parks in Portland, Maine Category:Streets in Portland, Maine Category:World War I memorials in the United States Category:Transport infrastructure completed in 1917 Category:Parks established in the 1910s Category:Protected areas established in 1917