CONDITIONS
CONTEXT
HISTORY
DESIGN ISSUES
SOCIAL ISSUES
PLANNING PROCESSES

Click here for map and orthophoto

Click here for data from census tract 1201.02.  (From U.S. Census 2000).

CONDITIONS:
The Pondside neighborhood of Jamaica Plain is defined by Jamaica Pond, the 60-acre kettlehole that is so clean that the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority considers it an emergency source of drinking water for the City of Boston. The Jamaica Pond Park is part of Boston's Emerald Necklaca park system. It is a well-utilized public resource and one of the most significant draws in the Heart of the City.

Housing:
The architecture in the Pondside neighborhood of Jamaica Plain is a diverse mix of Victorian, Colonial Revival, Second Empire, brick apartment buildings, and other housing types and styles. Some of the oldest remaining homes in Jamaica Plain are located in this neighborhood.

Residential buidings in the Pondside neighborhood are predominantly two-family homes, with a smattering of apartment complexes and one and three-family homes, including dilapidated mansions, fully renovated luxury condominiums, modest two-families, and a dense apartment complex.

Centre Street:
The revitalized business district along Centre Street provides the neighborhood with a variety of shops and restaurants. The Jamaicaway and Arborway offer residents direct access to the Longwood Medical Area, Cambridge, and near downtown Boston. As a result of conveniences such as these, property values in the neighborhood by the Pond are higher than virtually all other communities in the Heart of the City.

Boundaries:
The boundaries of the Pondside neighborhood are not clearly defined, but extend roughly east of Jamaica Pond from Arborway/ Jamaicaway to Centre Street. The Heart of the City includes only the southern section of the neighborhood (south of Pond Street). 

Monument Square Historic District:
The area around the intersection of Centre, South, and Eliot Streets is rich in historically and currently significant buildings, as well as a library and commuity center. The Soldiers' Monument itself memorializes Civil War veterans from the old Town of West Roxbury. The Eliot School - the first school in Jamaica Plain - is located on Eliot Street just beyond the First Church of Jamaica Plain. It still operates as the Eliot School of Fine and Applied Arts.

Curtis Hall nearby on South Street was built in 1868 as the West Roxbury Town Hall when Jamaica Plain was the town center of West Roxbury. Today, this striking public building operates as a community center with a computer area, pool, gym, track, pool tables, and weight lifting area.

Also in this area are the Sedgewick Street branch of the Boston Public Library, and Eliot Hall, which is home to America's oldest community theater. In 1988, Eliot Hall was included in the National Register of Historic Places. Finally, the Loring-Greenough House is located on Centre Street at Monument Square. This mid-Georgian mansion was built in 1760 and is the last existing 18th century country estate in Jamaica Plain. The house was taken over by colonial forces during the Revolutionary War and became the first war hospital in the nation.

Significant buildings along the edge of the Pond:
The Boston Children's Museum was once located directly across the street from Jamaica Pond on Pond Street/ Jamaicaway. The building was subsequently converted into luxury apartments with lavish gardens. Two mansions on Pond Street that are known collectively as "Our Lady of the Way" were used as a convent and foster home, but will be redeveloped into housing (see below).

Streets and homes south of Jamaica Pond:
Among a line of homes built in the early 1900s is a sprawling, slightly dilapidated, columned mansion on 1 Dane Street that was built in 1827. This is one of the original estates in the area that preceded the suburban development of Jamaica Plain that occurred about 75 years later. Streets such as Aldworth Street and Dunster are tree-lined and flat, with meticulously cared-for lawns and two-family homes with intricate detailing, the majority of which were built between 1900 and 1915.

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CONTEXT:
The census tract that includes both the southern Pondside neighborhood and a portion of the neighborhood west of the pond (known as Jamaica Hills) is 1201.02. According to the 2000 Census, the median household income for this community is $98,906. More than 91% of the population is white, 4% is black or African American, and 2.7% are Hispanic. In a neighborhood that otherwise has a relatively high degree of integration, Pondside is a highly segregated area.

In 2000, only 16 percent of employed persons in the neighborhood relied on public transportation to get to work. The median household income of the area was $98,906.

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HISTORY: 
Much of the following is taken from Alexander von Hoffman's 1994 history of Jamaica Plain called Local Attachments).

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 first white settlers in the area called Jamaica Pond the Great Pond. Pondside, particularly along Eliot Street, was the original village center of the area, peopled by the wealthy elite beginning in about the 1740s. The country mansions of Boston's elite included orchards, stables, greenhouses, and rolling countryside. Small-scale commerce on Centre Street provided for the community's basic needs. This type of lifestyle thrived through the end of the 18th century and into first half of the 19th century.

Beginning in the 1700s, the Pond itself was used for ice harvesting. 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. Between 1795 and 1848, Jamaica Pond supplied most of Boston's water. 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). 

By 1850, the flatland south of Jamaica Pond was the most densely settled part of what would become Jamaica Plain. Although the area was originally dominated by farms and large estates owned by the wealthy elite, by 1840 commuters were building homes next to estate owners, many of whom had been made wealthy by wholesale merchant professions. As the lower classes began moving to Jamaica Plain, members of the upper class concentrated themselves in the Pondside, Moss Hill, Sumner Hill, and Parkside areas of Jamaica Plain. What had been summer homes were converted to year-round homes, and many of Boston's wealthy continued to be lured to the pond. The creation of Jamaica Park and the Emerald Necklace only contributed to the attractiveness of the area.

In the late 1800s, middle-class families began to move to the previously exclusive Pondside area. The area was sub-divided to a greater extent. However, Pondside residents continued to band together to protect their interests. In the late 1890s, residents "turned out in force" to protest an extension of Huntington Avenue through their neighborhood (von Hoffman, A. Local Attachments, 1994, p192).

Although much of Jamaica Plain was hard-hit in the 1960s and 1970s by urban blight and the decimation of the Southwest Corridor, the Pondside neighborhood remained relatively stable.

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DESIGN ISSUES:
Parking and traffic:
Traffic calming and parking have become increasingly problematic issues for the Pondside community, particularly along the Arborway/ Jamaicaway/ Pond Street between the neighborhood and the Pond. The popularity of the Centre Street business district as well as Jamaica Pond and the many community resources in the area put a strain on existing parking.

Rising housing costs:
This is one of the most expensive areas to buy or rent housing in the Heart of the City. As the price of rental units rises in this area, long-term renters are finding they can no longer afford to live in the area.

Development disputes: 
Contentious decision-making processes regarding how available land will be used in the neighborhood and how much parking new units of housing must provide have involved much time and expense on the part of developers and residents. The decision-making process for the development of the former "Our Lady of the Way" convent is one example.

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SOCIAL ISSUES:
Because almost 80% of residents in Pondside and Jamaica Hills own their homes, the increase in home values in Jamaica Plain is, for most people, a blessing rather than a curse. The great majority of residents will not be displaced by current housing trends in the Heart of the City.

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PLANNING PROCESSES:
In 2002, after a long and controversial community decision-making process, Maplehurst Builders received permission from the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council to develop a 17-unit condominium complex on 60-80 Pond Street and 63-79 Burroughs Street. The site is directly across the street from Jamaica Pond on a 3.5-acre group of lots. In 2002, the site holds two mansions formerly used as a convent and foster home called "Our Lady of the Way," and one vacant lot.

Maplehurst Builders proposed to restore one of the two existing buildings to create six units of housing and to build two new buildings on the vacant lot. They agreed to preserve and maintain the mature trees on the site and to provide two affordable units on the site (to be sold for less than $180,000 each) (Maplehurst Builders).

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