Hammond Pond Parkway

Hammond Pond Parkway is a 1.75-mile, four-lane asphalt parkway linking Beacon Street in Newton with a rotary at Horace James Memorial Circle in Brookline. Planned by the Olmsted firm for the Metropolitan Parks Commission, it follows the natural contours of the land and passes wooded parkland of the Hammond Pond Reservation before entering suburban neighborhoods. Land takings began in 1914, a preliminary study followed in 1928, and construction was finished in 1932 at a cost of $216,280. The route connected Newton and Brookline residents with the southern reservations and, together with West Roxbury Parkway, with the Arnold Arboretum, Franklin Park and Jamaica Pond. Contributing features include a cast-concrete railroad bridge, the granite double-arch Boylston Street Overpass, the Beacon Street miters and the 50-foot rotary. Later changes, such as 1930s planting and WPA walks and a 1970s land transfer for the Chestnut Hill Mall, left its integrity largely intact. It was recognized for community planning, engineering, landscape architecture and transportation.