Stop after about 5 minutes - there are plentiful benches if you want to have a seat.
During the late colonial era, large estates came to be built here in the “outskirts” of Roxbury. This area was a lovely place to catch cool breezes off the pond in the summertime. The Royal Governor, Sir Francis Bernard was one luminary who lived along the shores of the pond. He had sixty acres of land on the southwest side (Prince Street). Bernard served as Royal Governor from 1760 to 1769. In June 1768 a committee led by James Otis (“the father of the 4th Amendment”) came to his house here to discuss what they felt were unfair encroachments on the liberties of Massachusetts residents. Just before their trip to Jamaica Plain, John Hancock’s ship Liberty had been seized and these protestors felt Hancock did not get due process. Bernard was non-committal and the rest, as they say, is history.
As the nineteenth century progressed more houses were built along the shores of the pond and we will see the site of a house and talk about that more in a few stops. Unfortunately for those whose dwellings ringed the Pond, but fortunate for those of us who visit it now, in 1892 the pond and its shoreline were acquired by the City of Boston. They proposed to develop Jamaica Pond as one unit in the chain of parks that came to be known as the “Emerald Necklace.” The eminent 19th century landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who had earlier designed Franklin Park and the Arnold Arboretum, designed the park around the pond.
All the mansions along the pond were taken over by eminent domain with two exceptions – which we will talk about on our tour.
The creation of parks in the late nineteenth century was a response to the industrial revolution. Later on in the tour, we will talk about commercial activities here on the Pond. The park movement “took back” this land for pure recreational purposes. The Jamaicaway was designed so city dwellers could take carriage rides out along the parks and commune with a natural setting (escaping their urban environments if only for a time). The term ‘parkway’ was coined by Frederick Law Olmsted and his partner, Calvert Vaux when they designed Prospect Park in Brooklyn (in 1866). Olmsted loved views and curving paths that allowed the visitor to round a corner and be surprised. As you move around his landscapes, which were engineered to look as they do, you get a sense of how they are “Olmstedian.” A visit to his home and workplace (the Olmsted National Historic Site) about three miles away in Brookline is a must!