They are part of the Boston parkway system designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.

They include[2] These roadways follow the southern shoreline of South Boston west from Castle Island, and surround what is now known as Joe Moakley Park.

The first formal proposal for the parkland that is now Joe Moakley Park and the causeway connecting Castle Island to the mainland were submitted by Olmsted in the 1880s.

Implementation of these plans was delayed in part because Castle Island was still under federal military jurisdiction.

Old Colony Avenue was laid out in 1898 on a former railroad right-of-way, but the Strandway (now the southern part of Day Boulevard) was not completed until the 1920s.