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Newton Park and Conservation Lands

10
  Cold Spring Park

LOCATION: Beacon Street in Newton Center. Enter from Beacon Street, or Duncklee Street off Walnut Street, or Plymouth Road off Woodward.

Location map

Trail map (Buy a trail guide)

Aerial photo

SIZE: 67 acres

LONGEST WALK: 1.5 miles (a longer walk that includes this park)

ACQUIRED: 1930s

ADMINISTERED BY: Parks and Recreation

FEATURES:

The park has ample wooded areas, fields, a brook, and wetlands. A farmers market takes place each summer on the parking lot off Beacon Street, on land that was previously used as a city dump.

Many activities are enjoyed here: baseball, tennis, soccer, walking, jogging, dog walking, nature study, bird watching, and cross-country skiing. A life course with exercise stations is situated along the trail. The ball fields may be reserved.

HISTORY:

1633 Part of 150-acre swamp and peat bog held as common land under a ruling by the General Court.
1848 The Cochituate Aqueduct built, which runs through the park.
1930s Alcock's Swamp was drained, and the book was rechanneled, lowered five feet, and partly culvert. The city acquired the land by gift, purchase, and tax taking. City developed south half of the park.
1983 City developed the Beacon Street half of the park.
1993 A temporary installation by artists Mags Harries, Ross Miller, and Marty Cain funded by National Endowment for the Arts was placed in various locations in the park.

Cindy Ryan paintingADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

An Old Man's Walk in Cold Spring Park, by V. Eugene Vivian, PhD (plant checklist)

The Conservators' Fall 2001 lecture, by Dan Perlman, was entitled From Cold Spring Park to Planet Earth.

A farmers' market is held on the Beacon Street parking lot every Tuesday afternoon from July through October.

Crows Mob Owl, Wreak Havoc, an essay by Pete Gilmore

Environmental Show videos:

A Naturalist's View

Recreational Opportunities

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