Olmsted Park is a linear park in Boston and Brookline , Massachusetts , and a part of Boston's Emerald Necklace of connected parks and parkways . Originally named Leverett Park , in 1900 it was renamed to honor its designer, Frederick Law Olmsted .
8-564: Olmsted Park can be roughly divided into two parts. In the south, bordering Jamaica Pond , it includes athletic fields and three ponds: from the south, a small kettle pond called Ward's Pond, the tiny Willow Pond, and the much larger Leverett Pond. The northern section of the park, above Route 9, is a narrow corridor through which the Muddy River flows on its way to the Charles River . The northern edge of Olmsted Park connects to
16-512: Is an extremely popular destination for Bostonians for walking, fishing, rowing, and sailing. Around Halloween each year, the pond serves as the site for The Lantern Parade. Participants dress in their Halloween costumes and walk around the pond. The pond once served as a reservoir for the City of Boston and the Town of West Roxbury, and it supplied ice in the winter to Boston and beyond. According to
24-627: The Back Bay Fens and the western edge of the Mission Hill neighborhood. Olmsted, who had made a reputation designing New York City 's Central Park , suggested in 1880 that the swampy and brackish Muddy River be included in Boston's park plan. Beginning in 1890, the river was dredged into a winding stream, a large swamp converted into Leverett's Pond, and Ward's Pond was connected with a small outflowing stream. Following completion of
32-643: The USGS , the name Jamaica derives from an Indian name meaning "abundance of beavers". The pond's setting, Jamaica Park, was included in the Olmsted Park landscape complex that was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 8, 1971. The Jamaica Plain Ice Company employed 350 men in 1874, and harvested as much 5,000 tons of ice a day from Jamaica Pond. The pond was once
40-429: The border of Brookline . It is the source of the Muddy River , which drains into the lower Charles River . The pond has an area of about 68 acres (28 ha), and is 53 feet (16 m) deep at its center ( MassWildlife map ), making it the largest body of fresh water in Boston, and the largest natural freshwater body in the lower Charles River watershed. It is ringed by a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) walking path, and
48-684: The Emerald Necklace Parks Master Plan in 1989 (updated in 2001), a number of improvements have been made in Olmsted Park. Riverdale Parkway, originally designed as a carriage road, was transformed into a bicycle and pedestrian path in 1997–98. The Allerton Overlook at the foot of Allerton Street in Brookline was recreated, footbridges re-pointed, and a boardwalk placed at the south end of Wards Pond. In 2006, Brookline restored Olmsted's "Babbling Brook" (a section of
56-650: The Muddy River in the park), resetting stones, clearing out invasive knotweed, defining the streambed, and replanting trees and shrubs to inhibit future invasives growth. Jamaica Pond Jamaica Pond is a kettle lake, part of the Emerald Necklace of parks in Boston designed by Frederick Law Olmsted . The pond and park are in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, close to
64-411: The site of a popular annual winter skating carnival. In 1929, this carnival was cancelled by Mayor Curley when cracks appeared on the ice, and 50,000 skaters had to be evacuated. In recent years, ice skating is no longer permitted on the pond. Overlooking Jamaica Pond until its 2007 demolition was Pinebank Mansion , the summer home of Edward Newton Perkins. This article about a location in Boston
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