Neponset River Reservation

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Neponset River Reservation from Dorchester side; view to Milton on the other side of the river Neponset River Reservation 1 Dorchester Massachusetts.jpg
Neponset River Reservation from Dorchester side; view to Milton on the other side of the river
Ventura Street Playground in the Reservation in Dorchester Ventura Street Playground Neponset River Reservation Dorchester Massachusetts.jpg
Ventura Street Playground in the Reservation in Dorchester

Neponset River Reservation is a Massachusetts state reservation along the Neponset River in the towns of Milton and Dorchester, near where the river flows through an estuary into the Boston Harbor. [1] It is adjacent to the Dorchester-Milton Lower Mills Industrial District along the River. This was some of the last land retained by Cutshamekin (Massachusett) before he deeded much of the land comprising Dorchester and Milton to English colonists in the 17th century.

In February 2022, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced an $8.2 million project to construct a 0.7-mile shared-use path from Tenean Beach on the reservation to Morrissey Boulevard. It will connect the Boston Harborwalk with Neponset via Morrissey (including a 670-foot boardwalk in the salt marshes near the National Grid gas tank). The project will be one funded under the $9.5 billion in federal funds the state government received under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. [2] [3]

In March 2022, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) placed 3.7 miles of the Neponset River, between Mother Brook in Hyde Park to the Lower Mills, on the National Priorities List of the Superfund program for remediation due to sediment containing elevated levels of PCBs. [4] [5]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milton, Massachusetts</span> Town in Massachusetts, United States

Milton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States and an affluent suburb of Boston. The population was 28,630 at the 2020 census. Milton is the birthplace of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush, and architect Buckminster Fuller. Milton was ranked by Money as the 2nd, 7th, 8th, and 17th best place to live in the United States in 2011, 2009, 2019, 2021, and 2022 respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorchester, Boston</span> Neighborhood of Boston in Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States

Dorchester is a Bostonian neighborhood comprising more than 6 square miles (16 km2) in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Originally, Dorchester was a separate town, founded by Puritans who emigrated in 1630 from Dorchester, Dorset, England, to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This dissolved municipality, Boston's largest neighborhood by far, is often divided by city planners in order to create two planning areas roughly equivalent in size and population to other Boston neighborhoods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashmont–Mattapan High-Speed Line</span> Light rail line in Boston and Milton, Massachusetts

The Ashmont–Mattapan High-Speed Line, commonly referred to as the Mattapan Trolley, is a partially grade-separated light rail line which forms part of the MBTA's Red Line rapid transit line. The line, which runs through Boston and Milton, Massachusetts, opened on August 26, 1929, as a conversion of a former commuter rail line. It exclusively uses PCC streetcars built in the 1940s. Passengers must transfer at Ashmont to access the rest of the Red Line, which uses heavy rail metro rolling stock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neponset River</span> River in eastern Massachusetts, United States

The Neponset River is a river in eastern Massachusetts in the United States. Its headwaters are at the Neponset Reservoir in Foxborough, near Gillette Stadium. From there, the Neponset meanders generally northeast for about 29 miles (47 km) to its mouth at Dorchester Bay between Quincy and the Dorchester section of Boston, near the painted gas tank.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorchester Avenue (Boston)</span> Street in South Boston, Massachusetts, US

Dorchester Avenue is a street in Boston, Massachusetts, running from downtown south via South Boston and Dorchester to the border with Milton, where it ends. Built as a turnpike, the Dorchester Turnpike, it is mostly straight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mattapan station</span> Light rail station in Boston, Massachusetts, US

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Register of Historic Places listings in Massachusetts</span>

The National Register of Historic Places is a United States federal official list of places and sites considered worthy of preservation. In the state of Massachusetts, there are over 4,300 listings, representing about 5% of all NRHP listings nationwide and the second-most of any U.S. state, behind only New York. Listings appear in all 14 Massachusetts counties.

Dorchester Shores Reservation is a Massachusetts state park consisting of three non-contiguous areas totaling 44 acres (18 ha) along the eastern edge of the Dorchester section of Boston. The area is composed of beaches and a park along the extended mouth of the Neponset River: Savin Hill/Malibu Beach, Tenean Beach, and Victory Road Park. Savin Hill is adjacent to Malibu Beach and has been restored to its original Olmsted Brothers design. The reservation is managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Columbia Point, Boston</span>

Columbia Point, in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, sits on a peninsula jutting out from the mainland of eastern Dorchester into the bay. Old Harbor Park is on the north side, adjacent to Old Harbor, part of Dorchester Bay. The peninsula is primarily occupied by Harbor Point, the University of Massachusetts Boston, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, and a complex at the former Bayside Expo Center, Boston College High School, and the Massachusetts Archives. The Boston Harborwalk follows the entire coastline.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorchester-Milton Lower Mills Industrial District</span> Historic district in Massachusetts, United States

The Dorchester-Milton Lower Mills Industrial District is a historic district on both sides of the Neponset River in the Dorchester area of Boston and in the town of Milton, Massachusetts. It encompasses an industrial factory complex, most of which was historically associated with the Walter Baker & Company, the first major maker of chocolate products in the United States. The industrial buildings of the district were built between about 1868 and 1947. They were listed as part of the district on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, with a slight enlargement in 2001. The buildings have been adapted for mixed industrial/retail/residential use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neponset Valley Parkway</span> United States historic place

The Neponset Valley Parkway is a historic parkway in southern Boston and Milton, Massachusetts, United States. It is a connecting parkway in the Greater Boston area's network, providing a connection between the Blue Hills Reservation, Neponset River Reservation, and the Stony Brook Reservation. The parkway was constructed between 1898 and 1929 with design assistance from Charles Eliot and the Olmsted Brothers. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boston Harborwalk</span> Public walkway that follows the edge Boston Harbor

Boston Harborwalk is a public walkway that follows the edge of piers, wharves, beaches, and shoreline around Boston Harbor. When fully completed it will extend a distance of 47 miles (76 km) from East Boston to the Neponset River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pope John Paul II Park Reservation</span> State park of Massachusetts, United States

Pope John Paul II Park Reservation, officially the Saint Pope John Paul II Park, and also known as Pope Park, is a 66-acre (27 ha) Massachusetts state park bordering the Neponset River in the Dorchester section of Boston. The park was reclaimed from the former site of a landfill and the Neponset Drive-In as part of the Lower Neponset River Master Plan and the development of the Neponset River Reservation. The park is managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morrissey Boulevard</span> Coastal road in Boston, Massachusetts

Morrissey Boulevard is a six-lane divided coastal road in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is owned and maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bradlee, Winslow & Wetherell</span>

Bradlee, Winslow & Wetherell (1872–1888) was an architecture firm in Boston, Massachusetts. Its principals were Nathaniel Jeremiah Bradlee (1829–1888), Walter Thacher Winslow (1843–1909) and George Homans Wetherell (1854–1930). Most of the firm's work was local to Boston and New England, with a few commissions as far afield as Seattle and Kansas City.

Bayside Expo Center was a convention center located in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Originally opened as a shopping mall called Bayside Mall in the 1960s, the mall later failed and the convention center opened in its place. In 2010, it was purchased by the University of Massachusetts Boston after the building went into foreclosure. After the building's roof collapsed from the weight of accumulated snowfall during the 2014–15 North American winter, the university demolished the facility in 2016. In 2019, the University of Massachusetts board of trustees leased the property to Accordia Partners. In 2020, Accordia Partners proposed redeveloping the property into a 21-building mixed-used biotechnology science park called "Dorchester Bay City". In 2023, the Boston Planning & Development Agency approved the Accordia Partners proposal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lower Neponset River Trail</span>

The Lower Neponset River Trail is a 2.4-mile-long (3.9 km) rail trail running along the Neponset River in the Dorchester section of Boston, Massachusetts. It roughly follows the path of the eastern part of the Dorchester and Milton Branch Railroad from the Port Norfolk neighborhood in Dorchester to the Central Avenue T Station in Milton, passing through Pope John Paul II Park, the Neponset Marshes, and the Lower Mills area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cutshamekin</span>

Cutshamekin was a Native American leader, who was a sachem of the Massachusett tribe based along the Neponset River and Great Blue Hill in what is now Dorchester, Massachusetts and Milton, Massachusetts before becoming one of the first leaders of the praying Indian town of Natick, Massachusetts. He is the possible namesake of Jamaica Plain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Governorship of Charlie Baker</span>

Charlie Baker, a member of the Republican Party served as the 72nd governor of Massachusetts from January 8, 2015 until January 5, 2023. Baker was considered a liberal or moderate Republican. During his governorship, Baker regularly had one of the highest approval ratings among incumbent U.S. governors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economic policy of Charlie Baker</span> Policies pursued by Massachusetts governor

During the Massachusetts governorship of Charlie Baker, his administration took various actions related to the state's economy and pursued a number of economic initiatives.

References

  1. "Neponset River Reservation | Mass.gov". www.mass.gov. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
  2. "Baker-Polito Administration Outlines Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Funding Plans for Massachusetts". www.mass.gov. February 3, 2022. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
  3. Dumcius, Gintautus (February 13, 2022). "Fed infrastructure dollars flowing for projects in Dot". Dorchester Reporter. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
  4. Dumcius, Gintautus (March 14, 2022). "Lower Neponset River placed on Superfund priorities list". Dorchester Reporter. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  5. Trojano, Katie (February 26, 2020). "EPA eyes Neponset for 'priority list'". Dorchester Reporter. Retrieved March 18, 2022.