OWNERSHIP
CONDITIONS
USE
CONTEXT
HISTORY
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
DESIGN ISSUES
SOCIAL ISSUES
PLANNING PROCESSES
TESTIMONIES
LINKS

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OWNERSHIP:
City of Boston - Department of Parks and Recreation

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CONDITIONS:
Jamaica Pond is a 60-acre kettlehole, which is a water body created by glacial meltwater. Natural springs feed the pond, which is up to 90-feet deep in some sections. According to the 2001 Emerald Necklace Master Plan, the pond has "exceptionally good water quality" (p171).

A 1.4-mile walking trail circles the perimeter of the pond, and there are almost 11 acres of forest cover in the park. The path is designed for pedestrians only, a rule that the Boston Park Rangers enforce. A second paved path follows along the outer perimeter of the park along the Arborway. Despite heavy use, Jamaica Pond has very little trash.

Buildings:
Structures on the shores of the Pond include a Tudor boathouse along the Jamaicaway that is home to the Jamaica Pond Project (built in 1913) and a Bandstand that houses a Boston Park Ranger Station. Sailboats and rowboats are available for rent at the Boat House. The Boathouse is also home to a Boston Park Partners Program, and has rest rooms.

The ramshackle ruins of the Pinebank estate lie to the north of the pond. Pinebank is the only pre-existing building that Frederick Law Olmsted incorporated into his design for the Emerald Necklace.

In 2003, Boston's City Parks Department and local activists began an effort to restore the structure, encouraging its recognition as a place in American history. The building and grounds are in need of considerable repair. Pinebank's roof has collapsed from previous fires, trash and graffiti are abundant, and the landscaping is overgrown and unattended (Bipasha Ray, "Faded Gothic Mansion on Jamaica Pond is relic of Olmsted Park Plan," The Associated Press State & Local Wire, Sept. 3, 2003).

In 2006, the Boston Parks and Recreation Department announced its plan to demolish the mansion. An engineering report released after an evaluation was performed on the building cited that the building was falling down and cannot be restored due to years of neglect, vandalism, and fires. There are large holes in the roof, walls missing or collapsed, floors missing or collapsed, and crumbling bricks throughout the entire structure. Opposition has risen from the community and local organizations. A local organization called Friends of Pinebank is trying to save the mansion. The organization says teh mansion could be revived as a cultural center, having a cafe, restrooms, and space for community groups. The city, although set in its place that the mansion is a danger to those around it, seems willing to hear opposition and other alternatives to tearing the building down. (Robert Preer, "Demolition Yes, 'Disney' No; City Says Pinebank Too Far Gone To Save," The Boston Globe, January 15, 2005) AND (Bill Porter, "Saving a Jewel of the Emerald Necklace; Old Landmark Seeks New Life," The Boston Globe, September 11, 2006)

The Boston Park Ranger's Nature Center building at Jamaica Pond was created in the summer of 1997. The building is one small square rooom that has housed nature displays, wildlife mounts, and other natural history resources. The Center is a home-base for bird migration walks, nature crafts, fishing classes, and other Park Ranger programs.

Access:
The Park is accessible to pedestrian traffic at many points along the paved perimeter path, particularly along Pond Street/ the Jamaicaway, and along sections of Perkins Street. Most park visitors access the pond on foot. There are no parking lots associated with the Pond, but there is limited parking near Kelly Circle at the southern end of the park and along parts of Perkins Street. There is a lighted cross-walk at Perkins Street and at Pond Street to facilitate pedestrian crossing. However, some pedestrians choose to dart across the fast-moving four lanes of traffic.

Perimeter:
Long rectangular chunks of stone line Jamaica Pond along the Arborway and Francis Parkman Drive. They were originally used to prevent motor vehicle abuse of the parklands. Irregular puddingstone boulders are also used along part of Parkman Drive. These provide a more naturalistic protective border. The Parks Department secured outside resources to help restore the shoreline and paths of Jamaica Pond Park – over $1 million in federal and state transportation funds and $100,000 in state historic landscape funds. The money was also used to revegetate a steep slope overlooking the Pond, as well as bike lanes on Perkins Street. The bike lanes were constructed as part of the

USE:
In its early years, Jamaica Pond was a vital natural resource for most of Boston. The Pond, as well as Stony Brook, attracted industry to Jamaica Plain in the late-1800s and early-1900s. Jamaica Pond was the major water source for Boston between 1795 and 1845. Particularly in its early years as a park, Jamaica Pond was extremely popular for ice skating.

Today, the walking path around Jamaica Pond is heavily used, primarily by adults for walking and running. Users are a mix of many ethnic groups and socio-economic levels. The draw of the water and circular walk is strong, and people living in areas far away from the park are willing to walk or drive significant distances to access the Pond, even when they live much closer to other parks and open spaces.

The water quality in Jamaica Pond is excellent and fishing is encouraged by the Parks Department, although fishing requires a state permit. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife stocks the pond, which contains Atlantic salmon more than two feet in length, as well as rainbow, brown and tiger trout, bluegills, yellow perch, sunfish, and large mouth bass.

Groups using the Park Ranger Nature Center include senior citizens, school groups, pre-school, day camps, and passers-by who are interested in the natural history of the park. Sailing and boating are also popular on Jamaica Pond in the warmer months. Boats are available for rent from the City of Boston. No private boats or swimming are allowed on Jamaica Pond, although teenagers in the area frequently break this rule.

There are also special events that utilize Jamaica Pond. For example in October 2001 there were an estimated 2,500 participants in the 18th annual Jamaica Pond Lantern Parade.

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CONTEXT:
Jamaica Pond is the largest and purest water body in the City of Boston. It is also the source of the Muddy River. The Pond offers a unique opportunity in Boston to fish. The Pond also creates a strong draw for a wide geographic and social range of people. According to local real estate agents, proximity to Jamaica Pond -- living in "Pondside" -- continues to increase housing and rental prices more than proximity to any of the other protected areas in Jamaica Plain. People from many areas in the Heart of the City, including Roslindale and the eastern side of Jamaica Plain near Franklin Park, are drawn to Jamaica Pond despite the fact that other parks are much physically closer to them.

East and south of Jamaica Pond, neighborhoods are densely populated, while north and west of the Pond the land is sparsely populated with few roads. Thus, most visitors must contend with the Jamaicaway/ Arborway to access the Pond.

The Pond is bordered by the Parkman Memorial to the west, which in turn borders Hellenic Hill urban wild. According to the Emerald Necklace Master Plan (2001), "The Parkman Memorial area is visually and physically disconnected from the rest of the park and is consequently under-utilized."

Part of the Hellenic College campus known as Hellenic Hill is visible from Jamaica Pond. The area is an important part of the viewshed in the park. Deep concern was raised among communities that use the park when Hellenic College announced its plans to built dormintory housing on the site. In 1993, the Boston Redevelopment Authority established a Conservation Protection Subdistrict for Hellenic Hill to help manage the area.

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HISTORY:
Jamaica Pond before it was a park:
Before 1630, the land around Jamaica Pond was a summer home to the Wampanoags Native Americans, who spent their winters nearby in Mattapan. In 1630, Puritan settlers built the first road in the area -- Quinecticut Lane, which today is called Perkins Street ("Jamaica Plain: Boston 200 Neighborhood History Series," 1976). The area around Jamaica Pond was used by early settlers for farming.

Beginning in the 1700s, the Pond was used for ice harvesting. Between 1795 and 1848, Jamaica Pond supplied most of Boston's water. Fresh, accessible water from both Stony Brook and Jamaica Pond encouraged the industrial development of this area (Warner, S.B., Streetcar Suburbs, 1978). The ice houses, however, polluted the water. The Jamaica Plain Aqueduct Company was formed in 1795 and was incorporated in 1857 to provide water to Jamaica Plain residents. Beginning in 1795, water traveled from Jamaica Pond to downtown Boston in wooden pipes. By the 1840s, however, Jamaica Pond was too small and too polluted by industry for the needs of the growing city (Laskey, "Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston Lecture on the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA)," 2002). Despite the decline in water quality, towards the end of the 19th century, Jamaica Pond was filled with freshwater smelts (Seaver, Speech before the Jamaica Plain Board of Trade, 1931).

Development of Jamaica Pond Park:
In 1894, the City of Boston purchased the Pond to make it part of the string of parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted that are now known as the Emerald Necklace. The City bought the houses that had been built along the Pond and demolished them, except for the Edward Newton Perkins house -- Pinebank -- which was completed in 1870 and became part of Olmsted's design (Sammarco, Jamaica Plain, 1997).

The land around the Pond was prime real estate, and the City was only able purchase 60 acres of land there. Unlike other sections of the Emerald Necklace, very little was done to this area to create the park. Olmsted retained many of the original trees, and there were few new plantings relative to other Boston parks, and the shape of the land remained intact. The Jamaica Plain Boathouse and Bandstand were not part of the original plan but were constructed in 1911 and 1912. During the early years of the park, ice skating was extremely popular.

A bathing house and beach had been planned for the park, but the community opposed the plan and it was never implemented. Pinebank, which remains in the park in 2002, became home to the first Children's Museum in Boston in 1913.

According to resident Fred Seaver, when the City took over the Pond, they dynamited it and killed the fish. "For weeks the city teams went around the Pond with men shovelling the fish and carted them away. You don't know what fish are today in Jamaica Pond. The State and City have stocked the Pond and I think over-stocked it. They put in thousands of salmon, black bass, pike and require permits. The Parks Department administered 900 fishing permits in 1930," Seaver says. 

Frederick Law Olmsted's vision for Jamaica Pond was for "a natural sheet of water, with quite, graceful shores, rear banks of varied elevation and contour, for the most part, shaded by a fine natural forest-growth darkening the water's edge and favoring great beauty in reflections and flickering half-lights. At conspicuous points numerous well-grown pines, happily massed, and picturesquely disposed" (Frederick Law Olmsted, Sixth Annual Report of the Board of Commissioners of the Department of Parks for the City of Boston for the year 1880).

A yearly boating regatta was held at the pond and drew 2,000 spectators each year. The bandstand drew large crowds for concerts. Then, as now, people fished and walked around the Pond. From the time the Emerald Necklace was established through about 1950, the neighborhood around Jamaica Pond was peopled with old Yankees and those who were at the time known as "lace curtain" Irish. In 2002, the neighborhood is more diverse but continues to be relatively affluent.

Recent history:
Since about 1980, the Jamaica Pond Project has been in partnership with the City of Boston to maintain the park and run the boating and educational programming.

The following is a list of improvements to the Pond made in recent years:

1987-1988: pruning ($133,500 - Department of Environmental Management)

1989: bikeway ($32,000 - State funding)

1988: play structures removed; Pinebank feasibility study ($30,000 - City); Pinebank stabilization ($58,000 - City)

1989-90: Emerald Necklace signage ($12,089 - Parkman Fund); Rehabilitation of Boathouse and Bandstand ($415,000 - City)

1990: restoration of water control mechanism, pond edge, pedestrian path, benches and planting
($359,000 - State and Parkman fund)

1994: erosion control repair ($125,000 - City)

1996-1998: Parks Department engaged in public process regarding the rehabilitation of Pinebank.

1999-2000: shoreline repair, path and planting improvements ($946,625 City and Federal); Pinebank slope stabilized and planted ($100,000 - Department of Environmental Management).

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ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES:
The following list of environmental issues are addressed in the 2001 Emerald Necklace Master Plan. A conflict in environmental values underlies many of the environmental issues raised in the master plan. Some of the vegetation that residents consider natural and beautiful the writers of the master plan consider "invasive vegetation." This discrepancy has caused conflict. Frederick Law Olmsted designed the Emerald Necklace landscape to be carefully managed and maintained, yet people feel deep connection to the wild, unmanaged landscapes that may not have been part of the original plan for the land.

Issues addressed:

-- "...many trees here are impressively large -- 350 are over 31 inches in caliper. However, nearly half of them are in poor to very poor condition. This is an overly mature and declining landscape." 
-- Pond edges are eroded and overgrown with invasive vegetation such as river birches that obscures intended views.
-- "The water level is several feet too low."
-- "Throughout the park, changes in vegetation have destroyed the original, rich landscape appearance." The plan recommends to "reinstate historic plantings throughout the park, including trees that overhang the water for scenic effect, and plants that provide cover and food for wildlife." 
-- Contaminated runoff is mediated by parkland that surrounds the Pond and processes the runoff so that it does not flow immediately into the Pond, carrying contaminants from the busy street to the east. However, walkers do not limit their running and walking to the paved path. They compact the soil and make the land more less permeable.

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DESIGN ISSUES:
-- Pinebank is currently in extremely poor condition both inside and out. Many community groups are engaged in a debate about how the building should be managed -- whether it should be destroyed, restored, or maintained as an historic ruin. The entrance to Pinebank has been overrun by vehicles and is currently closed, attracting vandals and becoming an increasingly significant maintenance problem.

-- As mentioned above, access to the Pond from the Pondside neighborhood on the other side of the Jamaicaway/ Arborway is problematic due to heavy traffic and speeding that occurs on these narrow lanes. In 2002, a woman was hit and killed by a motorist while she was crossing the street in this area.

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SOCIAL ISSUES:
Many visitors feel extremely safe at Jamaica Pond and walk around the park from early in the morning and into the evening. Visibility among walkers is high. However, according to the E-13 Police who patrol Jamaica Pond, in 2002 there was one sexual assault in the park and crime is not non-existent.

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PLANNING PROCESSES:
The Emerald Necklace Master Plan 2001 includes a plan for Jamaica Pond created by Walmsley/Pressley in 1986, much of which has not occurred. The plan includes: 1) Selective clearing of invasive species and increased access to Parkman Memorial, 2) A jog/bike path along Parkman and Prince Streets and along the upper perimeter of the Pond, 3) Reconfiguration of Kelly Circle to add land to the Park and improve the flow of traffic, 4) Improve pedestrian crosswalk connections on the Arborway, 5) Rehabilitate boathouse and bandstand, 6) Remove invasives along edge of Pond, 7) Restore Pinebank, 8) Control water level by repairing outflow control into Ward's Pond.

Together with Boston Preservation Alliance, the City has been involved in an effort to explore the feasibility of developing Pinebank, which is the only building retained by Frederick Law Olmstead in his plans for the Emerald Necklace.

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TESTIMONIES:
"If I want to get exercise, I walk from Walnut Street to Jamaica Pond and go around once, maybe twice" (Roxbury resident who lives less than a block away from Franklin Park).

"I find it very questionable whether [Frederick Law Olmsted] wouild advocate for the spending of $4 million to restore the Pinebank building. Since he stated that the Pinebank building should remain in the landscape surrounding Jamaica Pond, he designated its use to be a refectory. It was after Olmsted's death that the boathouse and bandstand were built, and the suses of these facilities fulfilled the intent of the landscape architect's vision" (Gerry Wright. Jamaica Pond Project).

"We can save this one historic park building, encourage a healthy lifestyle, and, this time, save ourselves from being the national example of how not to care for our heritage." (Anne Lusk, resident of Brookline and a member of Friends of Pinebank, from a letter to The Boston Globe on January 29, 2006)

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LINKS:
A history of Pinebank reprinted from the Jamaica Plain Gazette in 1991.

A history of Hellenic Hill written by Walter Marx for the October 4, 1991 Jamaica Plain Gazette.

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