{"nrhp_refnum":"85003314","name":"Sargent's Pond","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"Sargent Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Brookline","county":"Norfolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.320465659000035,"lon":-71.12725559799998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-10-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Landscape Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national","state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A roughly three-acre, man-made pond on Sargent Road in Brookline, Massachusetts, created in the late 1870s by Charles Sprague Sargent as a focal point of the Holm Lea estate.","why_significant":"The pond is one of the few surviving elements of the Sargent Estate, probably the most famous 19th-century country estate in Brookline. It reflects the naturalistic landscape philosophy of Charles Sprague Sargent, a renowned horticulturist and founder of the Arnold Arboretum. The nomination cites criteria A, B and C.","narrative":"Sargent's Pond is a three-acre artificial pond in a residential part of Brookline, Massachusetts. Charles Sprague Sargent created it in the late 1870s by excavating a basin and damming a small natural brook. It was meant as a major focal point of Holm Lea, the 150-acre family estate he managed for his father, Ignatius. Holm Lea was known for rolling meadows, rare American and exotic trees, broad lawns and carefully planned vistas, and thousands of visitors came on Rhododendron Sunday. The estate was subdivided in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and the pond is among the few remaining pieces of it. Plantings around the pond, including irises, remain informal and naturalistic, though sketches and photographs suggest there was once more landscaping. Sargent, an advocate of naturalistic design, also founded the Arnold Arboretum. The pond was listed for its link to the estate and to his landscape philosophy.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Charles Sprague Sargent (Charles Sprague)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Current condition recorded as good in 1983; a small concrete maintenance building/pump house stands nearby, and some original rhododendron and landscaping have been lost.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:57.244981-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/88/7926/63792688/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/85003314.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003314/1249111f28-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003314/1249111f28-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BrooklineMA_SargentsPond.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Magicpiano</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BrooklineMA_SargentsPond.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63792688","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sargent%27s_Pond","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7423921"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/norfolk-county/sargents-pond-85003314/"}