"The life history of humanity has proved nothing more clearly than that crowded populations, if they would live in health and happiness, must have space for air, for light, for exercise, for rest, and for the enjoyment of that peaceful beauty of nature which, because it is the opposite of the noisy ugliness of towns, is so wonderfully refreshing to the tired souls of townspeople."

--Mr. Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect for the Metropolitan Park Commission, Boston Metropolitan Park Report 1893.

The Early History of Prospect Hill Park

Created in 1893, Prospect Hill Park covers 250 acres, entirely within the City of Waltham. At this size, it is a significant open space, and "perhaps the largest municipally-owned park inside the loop of Route 128." The park covers a ridge which features two significant peaks. At 485 feet above sea level, the higher of the two is the second highest point in the vicinity of Boston, only the Great Blue Hill stands taller. This peak has been called Great Prospect, but is more often referred to as Big Prospect, while its smaller associate, which stands at 435 feet, is known as Little Prospect. Both peaks provide excellent views of the Boston basin.

About fifteen years before Prospect Hill Park was created, Frederick Law Olmsted began work on Boston's Emerald Necklace. This was a time when the construction of parks for passive recreation was important to much of Boston's elite. In 1882, the Massachusetts Park Act became law. This act encouraged the creation of park commissions which would then have the power to buy lands on behalf of a municipality. Ten years later the Metropolitan Parks Bill was passed as chapter 342 of the Acts of 1892. This act dictated that a board of Metropolitan Park Commissioners be formed to "...consider the advisability of laying out ample open spaces for the use of the public, in the towns and cities in the vicinity of Boston..." They were also assigned the duty of devising "...a comprehensive plan for laying out, acquiring and maintaining such open spaces."

The Metropolitan Park Commissioners were Charles Francis Adams, Philip A. Chase, and William B. de las Casas. They hired Sylvester Baxter as "...a secretary interested in the subject and familiar with the ground to be covered, whose duty it would be also to collect documentary information...", along with Charles Eliot, an associate of Frederick Law Olmsted, as "...a professional landscape architect, to devise a practical scheme of development and prepare the maps, plans and report to explain it..."

The Commissioners published their report in January of 1893. In it they stated their belief in the importance of a metropolitan park system: The provision of ample open spaces for public recreation and the promotion of public health is now universally regarded as an essential feature in the proper equipment of urban communities. In all parts of the civilized world the leading cities are recognizing this necessity. The younger cities are perceiving the wisdom of providing amply for the future in this respect by securing lands in suitable locations and in sufficient amount, to be developed with the growth of their population. The older cities, like London, Paris and Berlin, though long possessed of extensive reservations of this description, are to-day finding their amount of open spaces inadequate, and are taking measures for securing extensive areas in addition that will meet the needs of the future. This report reviewed the numerous suitable locations for parks within the metropolitan area, and included a map revealing both existing and proposed public open spaces. Among the proposed open spaces was a park which would have included both Prospect Hill and nearby Bear Hill. Despite their interest, the Metropolitan Park Commission chose not to involve themselves in the acquisition of Prospect Hill. This was in part due to the fact that Prospect and Bear Hills both lay entirely within the City of Waltham, and thus Waltham's own Park Commission, formed in 1892, was already making plans to acquire the land that would eventually form the park. As described by Mr. Baxter:

In Waltham, to the north-westward of the centre of the city's population, lies the noble eminence of Prospect Hill, the greatest elevation in the neighborhood of Boston after the Blue Hills. Very fortunately it appears that the park commission of Waltham, lately constituted, promises to attend to the reservation of this very desirable feature, leaving as a subject for metropolitan consideration the immensely important matter of the Charles River, in which Waltham is naturally deeply concerned.

The Waltham Park Commissioners took on the task of acquiring land for Prospect Hill Park in 1893. It was in February of that year that they requested an appropriation of $20,000 from the Board of Aldermen. That granted, they acquired several parcels of land which included the peaks of both Big and Little Prospect. They did not meet with objection from the property owners: "So far as we know the price allowed was satisfactory to the parties interested and no recourse had to be made to the courts to settle the differences in the value of the land taken. This is not surprising when one considers that this land was owned by wealthy families who used them as woodlots. At the time, fossil fuels were becoming more available, so wood was losing value as a fuel. Some of the land had already been subdivided with the intention that it would be used as house lots. However, the slope of the hill was too steep and rocky, so the attempt was unsuccessful. In the end, selling their property to the city for $100 to $200 per acre must have seemed like a fair deal to the landowners.

Although they only spent $9,500 of the requested $20,000, the Park Commission decided not to acquire much land beyond that which included the peaks, resulting in a total acquisition of 74.74 acres in 1893:

There are, no doubt, many friends of the park system who would have desired us to take even a greater area, extending to the south and east of the greater Prospect commonly called "Big Prospect," and to the west and north of the lesser Prospect, familiarly known as Prospect Hill, and including Bear Hill, so called. Excellent as this dream of our greater park system is, and much as we trust to see this hope realized, we deemed it inadvisable and inexpedient, in the condition of the city's finances, to recommend such a plan at the present time. For the present we have preserved for the use of the people the most desirable and necessary area of land, which we hope to make the nucleus of a chain of parks encircling the city and insuring adequate breathing spots.

Despite this, more land was purchased the next year, and over the following decades acquisition continued. By 1927 the park covered 219 acres.