Continue arund the Pond to the entrance by the light at Perkins/Chesnut Street
Across Perkin’s Street (to the right of Chestnut Street) is Ward’s Pond which is another kettle hole pond, but much smaller than Jamaica Pond. It is part of Olmsted Park, which was renamed in 1900 in honor of the landscape architect who created the Emerald Necklace. Originally, the area was called Leverett Park and Olmsted said it was designed to be "a chain of picturesque fresh-water ponds, alternating with attractive natural groves and meads.” [Olmsted, 1881]
Across Perkins Street on the other side of Chestnut were several other major estates that existed on the border of Jamaica Plain and Brookline on the north shoreline of the Pond. Two were part of the Perkins’ family holdings, Oakwood and Nutwood (these houses demolished). Another was the home of Quincy Adams Shaw which he built in the 1860s. We will talk about Mr. Shaw a little later on. But his wife, Pauline Agassiz Shaw is worth a mention here. We always discuss her on our Monument Square tour, since she was the benefactor behind the first public kindergartens in this country, one of which was on Thomas Street. Pauline Agassiz Shaw was the daughter of the renowned Harvard natural scientist Louis Agassiz. He made sure his daughters had a top-notch education, unusual during that time (they were home-schooled). She married Quincy Adams Shaw in the 1860s, who was a copper magnate, and then used the considerable fortune at her disposal for social reform. She was one of the most public-spirited citizens Boston has ever had and she wanted to make sure education got offered to more and more people. She helped found and finance not only 31 kindergartens but free nurseries (we call them child care centers now), vocational training centers for city youth, as well as 8 neighborhood and settlement houses. She was also a strong supporter of woman's suffrage, prison reforms and the world peace movement.
After Pauline’s death in 1917, the Cabot family moved into the Shaw house. The development of condominiums here currently takes its name from that old Cabot Estate. Nancy Graves Cabot collected materials about the pond and pictures of the area; we have some of her remembrances on the JPHS website.