43 HAMMOND POND–HOUGHTON GARDEN
HIKE

KEY AT-A-GLANCE INFORMATION

LENGTH: 2.2 miles

CONFIGURATION: Loop

DIFFICULTY: Easy

HIKING TIME: 1.5–2 hours

SCENERY: Woods, a pond, and peat bog as well as a 6-acre deer park and 10-acre historic wild garden

EXPOSURE: Mostly shaded

TRAFFIC: Light

TRAIL SURFACE: Packed earth, crushed stone, and some rough wooded sections

SEASON: Year-round sunrise–sunset

ACCESS: Free

MAPS: Maps can be obtained from the Newton Conservators, www.newtonconservators.org.

FACILITIES: None

SPECIAL COMMENTS: Houghton Garden is popular among birders. Beware: This hike crosses the tracks of a streetcar.

WHEELCHAIR TRAVERSABLE: Recent rehabilitation work and upgrading has made the Houghton Garden wheelchair accessible.

DRIVING DISTANCE FROM BOSTON COMMON: 6 miles

Hammond Pond–Houghton Garden Hike

UTM Zone (WGS84) 19T

Easting: 307865

Northing: 4695299

Latitude: N 42° 23' 10"

Longitude: W 71° 20' 03"

Directions

From Boston by car: Take MA 9 to the Hammond Pond Parkway exit. Park at the Chestnut Hill Shopping Center. The trailhead is located in the northwest corner of the parking lot.

From Boston by public transportation: Take the D train on the MBTA Green Line to the Chestnut Hill station.

IN BRIEF

A hidden gem, this hike passes a ten-acre pond and crosses the tracks of the country’s oldest streetcar before touring a 19th-century deer park and a garden listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

DESCRIPTION

In the mid-1600s Thomas Hammond and his wife Elizabeth relocated from the coastal town of Hingham to Newton, then a part of Cambridge, where in a joint venture with Vincent Druce, they purchased several hundred acres of land. Later when they divided their holdings, Thomas Hammond claimed acreage that lies in what is now Newton’s Chestnut Hill neighborhood. Immigrants from England and clearly stout of heart, Thomas and Elizabeth were pioneers in territory a hair shy of wilderness. Over time the Hammond’s property passed into the hands of many others including the Webster and Houghton families. Between 1968 and 1979 the City of Newton purchased parcels totaling 113 acres to ensure that they remain open space.

Locate the trailhead at the northwest corner of the Chestnut Hill Mall parking lot next to a kiosk displaying a map of the reservation. Departing from this unlikely starting point, set out hiking north on the wide-packed earth trail shaded by an elegant awning of hemlock boughs. Though visible from the paved ground outside, Hammond Pond quickly vanishes behind a thicket of brush once you are inside the woods. Nonetheless the trail arcs along the pond’s side keeping within close range of the water.

Looking like the massive steel prow of a sinking oceanliner, a wall of granite sits incongruously to the left on a still sea of fallen leaves. A prized teacher among the area’s novice rock climbers, the boulder almost always has a group lesson underway. Seasoned climbers frequent it as well, climbing during lunch hours and before or after the day’s commute.

Bending northeast the trail reaches a clearing where suddenly the tannin-dark pond materializes, reflecting metallic light to the sky. Here the trail forks left and right. Bear to the right and continue into woods of oak and maple. Beyond where a minor path connects the main trail to the pond below, the trail passes a boulder so striated by glacial wear that it looks like a worry-creased brow.

The pond disappears behind a dense hedge of leatherleaf, elderberry, choke cherry, pussywillow, and other shrubs growing beside the pond and the peat bog separated from it by a dam jutting east. Staying on upland, the trail winds westward along the boundary of the bog. The trail is lightly worn and therefore vague on this section but it soon arrives at a sign identifying the land as part of the Webster Conservation Area. From this point blue blazes mark the trail.

Logs then a boardwalk provide dry passage over a wet patch. Just beyond this the trail splits. Either way will do, however the trail to the right maintains a view of the bog. Traffic sounds waft from overhead as cars whoosh by on Hammond Pond Parkway; below the woods are remarkably quiet. Track for Boston’s Green Line of the commuter rail system runs along the far bank of the wetland, and from time to time a rattling train clatters by. Built around 1852, the Green Line is the oldest and most heavily traveled streetcar in America.

Ahead the trail veers west away from the peat bog and a moment later meets with its other half joining from the left. Stay with the trail as it passes another path diverting to the left and arrives at a junction. Here Hammond Pond Parkway and the MBTA tracks cross paths, forming the northern boundary of the reservation. The trail to the left fords the flow of the parkway to connect with additional Webster conservation land. For this hike continue to the right and follow blue markers over the rails of the Green Line.

The creations of two inspired and dynamic women lie on the other side: Mrs. Webster’s deer park and Mrs. Houghton’s garden. Set out to the left on a grassy lane to begin a tour of the two, first visiting the six-acre deer park. Bordered by the train on one side and wetland and a private garden on the other, the path leads west to a boarded-up barn behind a forbidding fence. Look to the left for a gateway and continue hiking parallel to the Green Line. The trail becomes sketchy in this tight spot, but have heart and continue on to find a set of steel stairs providing an exit to Hammond Pond Parkway.

The sprawling, unkempt meadow erupting with granite outcroppings lying ahead is the deer park. Looking around to get your bearings you will notice a sign advising visitors to refrain from scaling the fence “because deer can sometimes be dangerous,” and confirming that a trail does indeed trace the park’s circumference.

In the early 19th century, when Edwin Webster and his wife purchased a sizeable piece of land including these acres, Mrs. Webster, in keeping with a practice popular with European aristocracy, established the deer park. She then introduced a herd of 24 animals, mostly does with one or two bucks included to ensure fawns in spring.

A unique and valuable snapshot of the land before modernization, the rugged grazing land within the fence remains unaltered since the Webster’s first took possession of it.

Follow the path around the perimeter of the park hiking first west then north beside Hammond Pond Parkway, then east to where the trail ends at an entrance to the deer park beside a private home. Managed by the Newton Conservation Commission, the deer are cared for daily by a keeper who has tended the herd for 20 years.

Leaving the deer park behind, hike east down the gravel driveway of the stately brick house beside the park to reach Old England Road. Bear right onto a horseshoe curve and continue past a gray house, then cross Lowell Lane (which leads to the train tracks) to find the entrance to Houghton Garden on the south side of Clovelly Road.

Follow the path as it travels through woods to a stone bench on a hill overlooking Houghton Pond. Dressed in a ruff of rhododendrons, the bench sits atop a granite wall that forms a dramatic backdrop to an orchestrated water garden 20 feet below. From this overlook hike left at the split that travels southeast along a slender finger of water to a footbridge. Follow through with the loop on the opposite bank by bearing left at the fork in the trail.

A hundred yards or so farther on a crushed stone path enters from the street and flows west to an oxbow in the pond. Explore this extension or continue to the right to access a wooden bridge that crosses to meet an array of paths woven through an alpine rock garden on a bank beside the pond.

Martha Houghton, one of the founders of the Rock Garden Society of America, established the garden in 1919. Today members of the Chestnut Hill Garden Club in partnership with the friends of Houghton Garden and the City of Newton strive to maintain it in accordance with Houghton’s high standards. Said to be one of the first of its kind, the alpine rock garden includes climbing hydrangea, lily of the valley, wood hyacinth, and exotic evergreens such as the umbrella pine.

After spending some time watching the play of light on the pond or the antics of the garden’s resident warblers and orioles, follow the trail as it curves around a stone bench, climbs steps, and joins the path to the entrance.

Once back on Clovelly Road bear left onto Lowell Lane and backtrack across the Green Line to the south side of the reservation. Taking up the blue trail again, follow it southeast, staying to the right at each of its splits to return to the parking lot.