05 JAMAICA POND LOOP

KEY AT-A-GLANCE INFORMATION

LENGTH: 1.45 miles

CONFIGURATION: Loop

DIFFICULTY: Easy

SCENERY: Views from the banks of a kettle pond landscaped by Frederick Law Olmsted and a boathouse designed by the Dorchester architect William Downer Austin and built in 1912

EXPOSURE: Mixed sun and shade

TRAFFIC: Varies from light to heavy

TRAIL SURFACE: Choice of clay or pavement

HIKING TIME: 30–45 minutes

SEASON: Year-round sunrise–sunset

ACCESS: Free

MAPS: Not needed

FACILITIES: Restrooms, drinking fountain, and community boathouse offering rowboat and sailboat rentals and youth programs

SPECIAL COMMENTS: Each Halloween a Lantern Festival is held at the pond. Concerts are held at the pavilion next to the boathouse all summer long.

WHEELCHAIR TRAVERSABLE: Yes

DRIVING DISTANCE FROM BOSTON COMMON: 4.5 miles

Jamaica Pond Loop

UTM Zone (WGS84) 19T

Easting: 325216

Northing: 4687588

Latitude: N 42° 19' 15"

Longitude: W 71° 07' 16"

Directions

Jamaica Pond is located on the Arborway across from Pond Street in Jamaica Plain, Boston.

IN BRIEF

This wonderful hike for all ages and abilities is located in a historic neighborhood right in the heart of Boston.

DESCRIPTION

In 1923, the Jamaica Plain resident Carl Anthonsen wrote in his journal, “Tonight I fulfilled my vow to go skating. The weather being ideal, skated for several hours on Jamaica Pond. Paid little attention to the festivities and was quite oblivious of the 50,000 gathering.”

Two years later, having been at the same municipal skating festival when the weight and exuberance of tens of thousands of skaters caused water to surge through cracks in the ice, Anthonsen complained, “There are too many people in the world.”

Incorporated into the Emerald Necklace in 1892, Jamaica Pond was, by the turn of the century, a favorite recreational destination for people from the neighborhood and far beyond.

The largest freshwater pond in Boston, at 68 acres, Jamaica Pond was, until the mid-1880s, Boston’s primary source of drinking water. Incorporated in 1795, the Jamaica Plain Aqueduct Company laid 45 miles of pitch-pine pipes to convey the water. In addition, the frozen pond provided households the ice needed to keep food from spoiling. The Jamaica Pond Ice Company, with its multiple icehouses, supplied Boston nearly all its ice for more than half a century.

Initially part of Roxbury, then West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain was settled in 1640 by the intrepid Curtis family. A century later, Joshua Loring, a commodore in the British army, kept a summer house less than a mile from Jamaica Pond. After spooking Loring back to England in 1774, colonial troops took the house over and made it their headquarters during the war for independence.

The question of how Jamaica Plain got its name may never be resolved. Some say that it is an Anglicization of Kuchamakin, the name of a chief of the Massachusett tribe; others say that the explanation lies in the involvement of some of its founding citizens in rum trade with Jamaica. However, it is also asserted that it was so named in 1677 to commemorate Cromwell’s success at wresting control of Jamaica from Spain.

By the mid-19th century, Jamaica Plain had attracted many wealthy families, who built summer homes on or close to Jamaica Pond. Francis Parkman, the author of The Oregon Trail, spent summers in a large house outfitted with a dock extending into the water. Not a healthy man, despite his reputation as an adventurer, Parkman gave up writing and turned to horticulture in his later years. Said to be afflicted with a neurological disorder, Parkman liked to row on Jamaica Pond every day for exercise and relaxation. To keep his hour-long workout from getting dull, he named points along the pond after famous capes. He called one jetty the Cape of Good Hope, and named a cove the Bering Sea. Out rowing on a Sunday in 1893, Parkman developed appendicitis and several days later died.

That Jamaica Pond was made a public park was to a large degree Frederick Law Olmsted’s doing. With the construction of Franklin Park, the Arnold Arboretum, and the Muddy River Improvement Project well under way, by 1891 Olmsted’s concept of a “green ribbon” around Boston was on the road to being realized. Advocates for the park needed only to point to concerns over population growth and the sorry condition of the icehouses to convince Boston’s city officials to add the pond to what is now called the Emerald Necklace.

Unlike the other “jewels” designed by Olmsted, Jamaica Pond looks much as it has since the retreat of the Wisconsin Glacier. After several private homes were seized by eminent domain then moved or demolished, Olmsted’s instructions dictated little more than what should be planted and where. As ever, his aim was to have the landscape look as natural and poetic as possible. As stated in his own words, he saw the pond as “a natural sheet of water, with quiet, graceful shores, rear banks of varied elevation and contour, for the most part shaded by a fine natural forest-growth to be brought out over-hangingly, darkening the water’s edge and favoring great beauty in reflections and flickering half-lights.”

The place to start a hike around Jamaica Pond is often dictated by parking opportunities. Being circular, the path has no start and no end. I chose to begin on its northwestern side, where, except for Perkins Street, Jamaica Pond connects with the Muddy River. Where a crosswalk meets the path, bear right and walk counterclockwise, passing a sandy beach dotted with fishermen. Rounding a turn, the path runs beside a stone wall bordering Francis Parkman Drive to the right, and the shore of the pond.

A hundred yards or so farther, Shea’s Island obstructs the view across the water. Neither entirely natural nor entirely man-made, this island is said to have begun as a bump formed on the lips of the two co-joined kettle holes that make Jamaica Pond. Local lore has it that the island was first “improved” by Indians, who built it up with stones to create a fish trap. Before the start of World War I, the “island” showed itself only in hot, dry summer months. It was the wife of Charles Sprague Sargent, the first director of the Arnold Arboretum, who dreamt up the idea of making a more permanent island. Using her influence, and charm, Mrs. Sargent appealed to James Shea of the Parks Department. The plan was promptly approved, and construction commenced the following summer. Two years later, populated with half a dozen willows, the island stood soundly above the water. Today, flocks of Canada geese, mallard ducks, and American coot congregate around the hummock.

Halfway along this bank, part way up a gentle slope, the path passes an enormous plain tree. This tree and the tremendous beech trees growing to the right of the path ahead are likely among the few trees remaining from Olmsted’s time. Beyond the beeches, the path approaches the junction of Prince Street and Parkman Drive, the site of Francis Parkman’s house, demolished near the turn of the century.

Rounding the pond’s southern bank, recessed between the water and upland, the path climbs past land that, from 1760 to 1769, was owned by the royal governor Sir Francis Barnard. Under the later ownership of Captain John Prince, the acres supported fine orchards of pears, apples, apricots, plums, and grapes. Later, a Jamaica Pond Ice Company icehouse stood hereabouts.

On this turn, cut in away from the path, to walk along the water. This wide beach is a favorite for fishermen practicing fly casting. Looking north, on a summer’s day you will likely see sailboats tacking lazily across the water.

From the beach, climb the granite stairs back to the path and turn left to walk toward the boathouse. Stout fruit trees, planted to replace Olmsted’s originals, blossom along this stretch in the spring. Mighty, but now somewhat collision-weary red oaks fend off cars the length of the Arborway, once, but no longer a carriage road meant to be traveled by horse and buggy.

Reaching the junction at Pond Street, help yourself to a drink from the spring-fed fountain in front of the Tudor-style boathouse. Passing the bandstand and a row of benches to the left, note a young evergreen tree growing just in from the Arborway and the path. Not a species of Olmsted’s choosing, the tree would please him nonetheless since it was planted to commemorate a successful campaign to keep the nearby Hellenic Hill free from development.

Continuing north, the path echoes the shape of the pond, traveling several feet in from the water behind the trees and shrubs planted along the bank. Mallard ducks paddle in the shallows, tipping tail up now and again to feed on submerged pondweed. Bending westward at a grassy passage to a kettle-shaped field, the path passes steep upland dense with trees and shrubs. Until recently, an estate named Pinebank, once owned by the Perkins family, sat upon this hill. Acquired by the Boston Park Department in 1891 on Olmsted’s recommendation, the former mansion has since been used as a commissary. Curving around the base of this hill, the path returns to the hike’s beginning at the crosswalk off Perkins Street.

NEARBY ATTRACTIONS

As many as 25 breweries operated in the area within a mile of Roxbury Crossing before national prohibition (1919–1933). One of these was Haffenreffer Brewery, at Stony Brook in Jamaica Plain. Today, the Boston Beer Company, makers of Sam Adams Beer, brews beer at the same location (30 Germania Street, Boston, 02130). The brewery offers tours to the public for a $1 donation; all the proceeds go to a local charity. Tours are offered Thursdays at 2 p.m., Fridays at 2 and 5:30 p.m., and Saturdays at 12, 1, and 2 p.m.; there is an additional tour on Wednesday at 2 p.m. from May through August. To reach the brewery, take the MBTA’s Orange line, or call (617) 368-5080 for recorded directions.