Hundreds of intrepid souls are expected to plunge into the Charles River on Saturday for the annual City Splash, one of the few events when the public is allowed to dip into water usually considered unsafe for swimming.
But splashing in the river wasn’t always prohibited.
In July 1889, the Globe reported on several amateur and professional swimming races on the Charles. And by the early 20th century, New Englanders flocked to multiple beaches on the river on hot days for a refreshing dip. The most prominent spot was Magazine Beach in Cambridge, which hosted not only bathers but also outdoor concerts in the late 1920s.
“People really used Magazine Beach and other spots as a recreational asset,” said Laura Jasinski, executive director of the Charles River Conservancy, which hosts City Splash. “There is an opportunity to go back to those days of having those beaches and fully using the river.”
Remnants of the old swimming spots are few and far between today. The Cambridge Boat Club stands on Gerry’s Landing Road, a section of riverbank once known as Gerry’s Landing Beach, a popular swimming spot in the 1920s.
Kate Radville, president of the Charles River Swimming Club, which holds an annual one-mile swim race in the basin, described her personal research into the golden era of river swimming in Boston.
“I look back at these black-and-white photos of when swimming was more habitual, and I find it really cool,” she said. “I want to see that in person. I want to see people taking a dip in all the places, all the time.”
Halfway through the 20th century, recreation in the Charles began to decline as scientific evidence for the adverse effects of pollution came to light and authorities grew concerned by the waste from decades of industrialization. A June 1950 article said the river had become “too polluted for swimming just as hot weather begins.”
That same year, Globe wrote that the Metropolitan District Commission had begun to forbid swimming in the Charles. The paper predicted that riverside beaches would be closed permanently and replaced by pools; a prognosis which would later prove to be correct.
In 1955, pollution was so infamous that essayist and historian Bernard DeVoto wrote that the Charles was “foul and noisome, polluted by offal and industrious wastes, scummy with oil, unlikely to be mistaken for water.”
The Standells recorded their ironic ode to the river, aptly titled “Dirty Water,” in 1965, which so resonated with Bostonians that it remains a Fenway favorite still.
Efforts to clean up the river have been plentiful — albeit incremental. The Charles River Watershed Association, formed in 1965 with a mission to restore and protect the river, hosted its first public swim in 1979.
Through the Clean Water Act of 1972 the US Environmental Protection Agency resolved to make waterways across America “fishable and swimmable” by 1983 and eliminate pollution runoff in navigable waters by 1985. That goal failed. The EPA declared a decade later that the Charles would be swimmable by 2005. It was a hopeful but similarly unattained goal.
In 1996, then-Governor William Weld plunged into the river fully clothed to mark the signing of the Rivers Protection Act. Weld admitted to New York Magazine that he had an earache for three weeks after the spectacle.
“Weld made the point so clearly that this is something he’s going to stand behind: investing in cleaning up the Charles,” Jasinski said. “And while we have come a long way in 30 years since that, we’ve seen the water quality improve, but we still need to be making investments to continue to clean up the river.”
Sewage overflows remain a problem as heavy downpours inundate antiquated sewer infrastructure. In the face of these challenges, officials responsible for the overflow sites announced a new plan this spring that would keep dumping sewage, but far less often.
CRWA executive director Emily Norton said stopping that plan altogether would be key to returning to the old days of riverside leisure.
“We’re not going to be able to reopen those old beaches until we largely eliminate the sewer overflows,” Norton said.
Norton said the still-standing public pools in Allston, West Roxbury, and Cambridge that were built where beaches once were, reflect an “equity angle” in water access.
“Our summers are getting hotter, and it’s only going to get more extreme, so people need relief from the heat,” she said. “If you have a lot of money, you might belong to a club. You might have a beach home or a lake home. You might have your own pool. People with low to moderate income don’t have that.”
She said that public pools, while free, are often closed or overcrowded. Reopening the river to swimming would give everyone, regardless of income, a way to escape the heat.
Saturday marks the eighth year of City Splash. Jasinski said demand has increased every year, with nearly all registration slots being snapped up within two hours of their release. Albeit, City Splash can’t be guaranteed. Last year, it had to be cancelled because of a sewage overflow.
Norton emphasized the rising global popularity of river swimming in such cities as Paris, which hosted swimming events in the Seine during the 2024 Summer Olympics.
“Around the world, there are urban rivers where people can swim routinely,” Norton said. “This really is doable, but we have to decide to do it, start the necessary cleanup projects, and reopen the beaches.”
Chloe Craft can be reached at chloe.craft@globe.com.