Photo © Jon Hetman
Description
Constructed, 1872
Redeveloped, 1946
Factoids
1873-Charles Sprague Sargent officially began a 54-year term as first director of the Arnold Arboretum. Sargent soon enlisted the aid of pioneering landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted – then busy designing the Boston park system – to help him lay out the grounds. “Olmsted immediately grasped the idea that an arboretum where the public could see varied plantations of rare and exotic trees and shrubs skilfully [sic] selected, artistically arranged, and grown under scientific oversight, would not only be an appropriate feature in the park system [now known as Boston’s “Emerald Necklace”] but might well become its culminating attraction,” Benjamin Lincoln Robinson, the Asa Gray Professor of Systematic Botany, wrote in the late 1920s. Nonetheless, the Arboretum proved a hard sell, Robinson noted. “Neither the City [of Boston] nor the Harvard Corporation welcomed the idea. The press was indifferent, and the public apathetic. Nine years of persistent effort were required before it was possible to draft a plan of procedure acceptable both to the City and to the University and to secure its approval by the General Court of Massachusetts.”
Related People & Organizations
Map View
Current Location
125 Arborway
Previous Locations
Nearby
MBTA Forest Hills Station
3219 feet
Emerald Necklace
3471 feet
Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site
1.38 miles
Franklin Park Zoo
1.72 miles
Blue Hill Avenue Youth Development Center
1.99 miles
Mission Hill Bike Racks
2.03 miles
Timeline
current
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current Images
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The Arboretum contains four notable hills: Bussey Hill, Peters Hill, Hemlock Hill, and Weld Hill. Of these, Peters Hill is the tallest at 240 feet
As a primary resource for research in plant biology, the Arboretum's living collections are developed, curated, and managed to support scientific investigation and study
At present, the living collections include 14,980 individual plants (including nursery holdings) belonging to 10,117 accessions representing 3,924 taxa
Beech Path in spring with lilacs in full bloom
The Arboretum occupies 281 acres in the Jamaica Plain and Roslindale sections of Boston
The Arnold Arboretum was a key reference for the establishment and development of modern botany in China
The land was deeded to the City of Boston in 1882 and incorporated into the Olmsted-designed parkway that would become known as the Emerald Necklace
1946 - Redeveloped
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1946 - Redeveloped - Images
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Bussey Brook, 1970
James Arnold's gift was combined with 120 acres of land that had been donated to Harvard University in 1842
On Lilac Sunday, garden enthusiasts from all over New England gather at the Arboretum to picnic and tour the lilac collection
1872 - Constructed
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1872 - Constructed - Images
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Bussey Brook facing the Conifer Collection, 1903
The Hunnewell Building under construction, 1892
Bussey Hill, 1890
Dawson Pond, 1929
Buildings at Hemlock Hill under construction, 1892
Lilac collection, 1908
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