Blue Hills Reservation Parkways-Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston

Ten miles of winding park roads cross the Blue Hills Reservation, the largest protected open space in metropolitan Boston, in Braintree, Canton, Milton and Quincy. The district includes Blue Hill River Road, Chickatawbut Road, Hillside Street, Unquity Road, Wampatuck Road and Green Street, which was added to the reservation in the 1940s. Most are 30-foot-wide asphalt roads that run through dense second-growth forest, with granite curbs, wooden fences and SS-type guardrails at some bends. The roads grew out of the Metropolitan Park Commission's work from 1893, when landscape architect Charles Eliot surveyed the hills and the first land was purchased. In 1894 the commission built 11.5 miles of dirt roads for limited public access and fire control. Unquity Road was the first new park road, and Hillside Street and Blue Hill River Road follow an older road that predated the reservation. The district also counts a 1904 granite-faced culvert and a wider system of culverts as contributing features. Together the roads link the reservation's headquarters, Houghton's Pond and its trails.