Why drive this stretch

Drive this stretch when you want Massachusetts to finish at the real eastern end of U.S. Route 20 instead of fading out in the inner suburbs. Watertown keeps the west side connected, Allston makes the urban entry readable, Boston carries the actual city weight, and Kenmore gives the route its exact final square.

Stop chain

A practical reading of this final stretch is:

1. use Watertown as the last calmer handoff from the earlier suburban approach
2. let Allston signal that the route is now fully urban
3. treat Boston as the real first-or-last major city stop, where history, waterfront, and book-ahead options finally stack up
4. finish at Kenmore when you want the route to land at the actual Route 20 terminus instead of an approximate downtown finish

Short-stop towns

• Watertown works best as a connector rather than the emotional finish
• Allston is usually strongest as a readable approach layer, not the destination itself

Linger towns

• Boston is the place that can actually hold time, planning energy, and book-ahead choices at the end of the route
• Kenmore matters less for long linger time than for giving the route an exact, satisfying finish

Best for

This stretch is a good fit when you want to:

• finish Route 20 at a true major-city stop instead of a soft suburban fadeout
• keep Boston framed as one of the route's first-or-last big-city anchors
• see the first hint of how the site will eventually handle a fuller urban-center stop differently from a normal corridor segment
• pair the exact eastern terminus with a real urban bench of history, harbor, and Fenway-side options

How to think about the finish

This page should read less like four equal stops and more like a controlled urban sequence. Watertown and Allston make the approach legible. Boston is where the destination weight lives. Kenmore is what makes the Route 20 ending exact.

It should also hint at what the broader Boston master plan is meant to do over time: treat major-city Route 20 stops differently from smaller-market segments, with a clearer urban bench of history, waterfront, book-ahead, and district-by-district choices. This page is still the segment read first, but it should already feel like the start of that bigger city-layer treatment.

Corridor read

Read this stretch as a practical Route 20 sequence rather than three equal stops. Watertown opens the segment, Allston carries the strongest weight in the middle, and Boston gives the stretch its cleanest finish or handoff on the far side.