This is a 1952 aerial shot of Charles River Esplanade, which shows the esplanade with a permanent, and larger shell: the Hatch Memorial Shell built in 1941, and the same oval we see in the 1938 aerial shot. Storrow Drive has been extended farther…
This is a 1938 aerial shot of Charles River Esplanade, which shows the esplanade with a temporary bandshell and oval. We can see that Storrow Drive did not extend very far in 1938, and is only reconstructed as a major freeway later on.