“This beautiful sheet of water, like a sapphire gem set round with emeralds…” Samuel Francis Smith, History of Newton, Massachusetts, 1880
|
Welcome to Bullough’s Pond, and the website of the Bullough’s Pond Association. Bullough’s Pond truly is one of the jewels of Newton, Massachusetts. In the middle of a busy city, you can sit on a bench and be transported into a state of nature. “It is possible,” the naturalist Diana Muir wrote, “to shut out all signs of civilization, and pretend that Bullough’s Pond floats in rural solitude with only a few black ducks for company.” |
Bullough’s Pond served early settlers and farmers in Newton as the power behind a local grist mill. Later it became a source of ice for iceboxes. For much of the last century, the pond was a wildly popular venue for ice skating. As Newton developed, however, silt and pollutants found their way into the pond, and its condition deteriorated. Twenty-five years ago, Bullough’s Pond was an urban eyesore, a muddy, silted, untended marsh surrounded by chain link fences. Thanks to the efforts of Betsy Leitch and the organization she founded, the Bullough’s Pond Association, our community found the will – and the money – to save one of the loveliest settings in the Garden City.
There is work to do around the pond. A forest of invasive trees and shrubs has blighted parts of the shoreline. Unwanted aquatic plants threaten the water’s quality. Silt and pollutants still drain into the pond, shrinking its size and lessening its purity. The pond’s historic skating hut is falling down. It needs to be preserved and re-purposed, perhaps as an observation platform or nature center. These plans, and the routine maintenance of the pond’s shores and pathways, cost money. Our Association works with the city and state, raises thousands of dollars, and devotes countless hours every year, to keep the pond beautiful. Please help us to protect this wondrous waterscape.
There is work to do around the pond. A forest of invasive trees and shrubs has blighted parts of the shoreline. Unwanted aquatic plants threaten the water’s quality. Silt and pollutants still drain into the pond, shrinking its size and lessening its purity. The pond’s historic skating hut is falling down. It needs to be preserved and re-purposed, perhaps as an observation platform or nature center. These plans, and the routine maintenance of the pond’s shores and pathways, cost money. Our Association works with the city and state, raises thousands of dollars, and devotes countless hours every year, to keep the pond beautiful. Please help us to protect this wondrous waterscape.
|
Yours truly,
Alex Beam
Journalist, Author & BPA Member |
