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Newton Park and Conservation Lands
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24
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Charles River Path -
Wells Avenue |
ADMINISTERED BY:
Riverbank: Division
of Urban Parks and Recreation
Woods: Conservation Commission
FEATURES:
This section of the Charles River Footpath
runs along the border of wetland vegetation through a wooded floodplain.
It was constructed through a cooperative effort involving the Parks
and Recreation Department, the Conservation Commission, the MDC,
the Newton Conservators, and Newton Knights of Tunsion.
HISTORY:
The land was owned by Robert Gould Shaw II.
During the Civil War, Shaw's cousin, Col. Robert Gould Shaw, a young white officer, volunteered for the command of the first
black regiment to be recruited in the North. The Shaw
house is now part of the Mt.
Ida College campus.
| 1970s |
Part of Shaw land
developed as Wells Avenue office park. |
| 1990s |
Volunteers made
the trail. Once a planned crossing over the marsh is built,
the path will run continually through the floodplain and will
no longer lead out from Wells Avenue parking lots. |
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
A statue
of Col. Robert Gould Shaw and his troops, designed by noted sculptor
Augustus
St. Gaudens, is on the Boston Common. Col. Shaw was played by actor
Matthew Broderick in the 1989 movie, Glory.
US Environmental Protection Agency information about the Charles River
US Geological Survey information
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