West Roxbury Parkway was built between 1919 and 1929 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

The parkway is distinctive in the roadway system developed by the Metropolitan District Commission beginning around the turn of the 20th century in that it was built in collaboration with the City of Boston, and is maintained by the city.

[3] At the northern end of the Stony Brook Reservation, the parkway runs through Bellevue Hill Park.

Although land was taken for the construction of the parkway as early as 1894, construction did not begin on its southernmost section until 1919, when the section from Washington Street to Belgrade Avenue was built.

It was extended to Centre Street in 1920, providing access via that road to the Arnold Arboretum, one of the city's objectives in the development of the parkway.