Stony Brook Reservation

Stony Brook Reservation
Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston
Small pond within Stony Brook Reservation
Country United States
State Massachusetts
Counties Suffolk, Norfolk
Municipalities Boston, Dedham
Location 12 Brainard Street, Hyde Park
(DCR district headquarters)
 - elevation 148 ft (45 m) [1]
 - coordinates 42°15′49″N 71°08′22″W / 42.26361°N 71.13944°W / 42.26361; -71.13944Coordinates: 42°15′49″N 71°08′22″W / 42.26361°N 71.13944°W / 42.26361; -71.13944 [1]
Area 616 acres (249 ha) [2]
Founded 1894
Management Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation
Location in Massachusetts
Website: Stony Brook Reservation

Stony Brook Reservation is a 475-acre (192 ha) woodland park in Boston and Dedham, Massachusetts, a unit of the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston, part of the state park system of Massachusetts.

Located in the southwest of Boston, the main large contiguous section extends southwards from Washington Street in the West Roxbury neighborhood to Mother Brook in the Hyde Park neighborhood, with an additional 14.2 acres (5.7 ha) southwest along a roadway to Mother Brook in Dedham. There is also an adjacent portion around the Bellevue Hill water towers on the north side of Washington Street.

It was established in 1894 as one of the five original reservations created by the Metropolitan Park Commission.[3] Elevations in the park range from Mother Brook at 15 feet (4.6 m) to Bellevue Hill, at 338 feet (103 m) the highest point in the city of Boston.[4] Recreational facilities at the park include fishing at Turtle Pond, athletic fields, tennis courts, an ice skating rink, and a swimming pool. The park is served by the Stony Brook Reservation Parkways, a road system that was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 2006, and features several hiking and mountain biking trails.[3]

Stony Brook Reservation contains the headwaters of Stony Brook.

History

The use of parcels of undeveloped land around Boston for a system of interconnected parks were conceived by landscape architect Charles Eliot, who had apprenticed with Frederick Law Olmsted and later assumed leadership of Olmsted's design firm in 1893. Eliot was instrumental in the founding of The Trustees of Reservations and the public Metropolitan Parks Commission in the 1890s and envisioned an expansion of the parks network to areas surrounding Boston.[5] The first five areas acquired by the Metropolitan Park Commission for this system in 1893 were the Beaver Brook, Blue Hills, Hemlock Gorge, Middlesex Fells and Stony Brook Reservations.[6]

References

  1. 1 2 "Stony Brook Reservation". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey.
  2. "2012 Acreage Listing" (PDF). Department of Conservation and Recreation. April 2012. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  3. 1 2 "Stony Brook Reservation". MassParks. Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  4. "Resource Management Plan: DCR's Stony Brook Reservation" (PDF). Boston: Department of Conservation and Recreation. August 2008. Retrieved February 9, 2014.
  5. Eliot, Charles William (1902). Charles Eliot, landscape architect. Cambridge, MA: Houghton, Mifflin. Retrieved 2009-12-08.
  6. Massachusetts Metropolitan Park Commission (1917). Report of the Board of Metropolitan Park Commissioners. Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co. p. 9. Retrieved 2009-12-13.
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