Blackstone Boulevard was constructed in 1894 to provide better access to Swan Point Cemetery. In 1886 Horace Cleveland was hired to plan the layout of Blackstone Boulevard. Later planting of the center median strip was completed according to plans suggested by the Olmsted Brothers, John Charles Olmsted (1852-1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. (1870-1957). More than two dozen trees remain from this original planting.
The Butler Avenue trolley line was extended over Blackstone Boulevard to the cemetery in 1903. In 1904-’05 a fieldstone shelter, designed by the prominent architectural firm of Stone, Carpenter & Willson, was erected opposite the cemetery entrance. With the increasing use of the automobile, trolley service to Blackstone Boulevard ended in 1948. The walking path down the center was built on the remnants of the old trolley bed.
