Weston Historical Society - Weston, Massachusetts, 358 Boston Post Road, Weston, MA (2026)

05/19/2026

Guest post from Bonnie Shao: Riverside Recreation Grounds (a follow-up from the canoe post)

“The Rec” was developed in 1896 by Charles W. Hubbard, a wealthy businessman and prominent conservationist. Hubbard had inherited a large estate on the southside of Weston and donated his own land to achieve his mission “to foster Outdoor Sport” by furnishing “Youth of the Metropolitan District with a Splendid Reservation on the Banks of the Charles for All Forms of Athletic Exercise.” With the endorsement of noteworthy Boston leaders, Hubbard’s plan came to fruition.

Riverside Recreation Grounds contained a boathouse, tennis courts, a track, ball fields, and one of New England’s largest swimming pools. A large shingle style building next to the pool housed a restaurant, two dressing rooms, a dance pavilion, and even fourteen bedrooms, and offered towels, bathing suits, canoes, and rowboats for rent. At the time of its opening, annual memberships cost $10 (the equivalent of around $390 today), or $5 for students (around $190 in 2025). Additionally, in order to obtain membership, one was required to submit a written application that contained recommendations “satisfactory to the Management.” Single-day tickets, which cost 25 cents (approximately $10 today), were also available to purchase.

Newton historian Robert Pollack deemed Riverside Recreation Grounds “one of the best-known recreational sites in the United States.” Indeed, “The Rec” organized a number of prominent events and became the first New England venue to host the Amateur Athletic Union national championships. Moreover, in the 1920s, the world record in the 100-meter dash was set at The Rec. The venue was also used for private events, hosting groups such as the Gillette Company, Boston City Hospital, and the Bank Officers’ Association of Boston.

Despite its location in Weston, historians have found it difficult to determine how much The Rec was used by Weston residents themselves. Interviews with young people of southeast Weston in the 1910s and ’20s indicate that few visited The Rec or even knew much about its existence. However, regardless of the extent to which The Rec influenced the lives of Weston residents, there is no denying the prominent role that it played in facilitating the athletic and social ventures of the greater Boston area.

05/11/2026

The Canoe Craze: a guest post from Bonnie Shao

The late 1800s and early 1900s predated the rise of automobiles. Yet, traffic still gathered daily in the Greater Boston area—created not by cars, but by canoes.

The techniques involved in mass producing canoes had just been honed, and two major canoe manufacturers had set up facilities in Weston and Newton’s Lakes District. Trains offered efficient transportation to the Charles River, and the construction of “boat liveries” and private clubs near railways enabled residents of the city to conveniently store their canoes. Thus, in 1903, a Boston guidebook exclaimed that “on a pleasant afternoon or evening the water is often so densely covered that one might almost cross the stream by stepping from one canoe to another.”

The Riverside Recreation Grounds was one of the largest boat liveries in the state; at such liveries, a casual visitor might spot up to 1,000 canoers on the river. Some canoers would even sleep in their canoes at nighttime, using mosquito nets and burning joss sticks to defend themselves from mosquitoes. Liveries also hosted musical entertainment—like the American Waltham Watch Company Band—as well as special canoeing events—like the 1906 Floral and Novelty Parade, which encouraged canoers to decorate their boats. One event, the Charles River carnival of 1904, attracted over 155,000 attendees.

However, this canoe craze did not last. As the automobile gained popularity during the 1920s, canoes began to fall out of fashion. Also prompting this decline were fires and floods. In 1936, the Charles River flooded to its greatest height yet recorded, damaging many boathouses.

05/05/2026

The Weston Aqueduct and Reservoir, constructed between 1901 and 1903, was a regional public works plan designed to supply water to the Boston metropolitan area. At 13.5 miles, the aqueduct extends from the Sudbury Reservoir to the Weston Terminal Chamber off Loring Rd. It is 13 feet wide by 12 feet high serving a daily capacity of 300 million gallons. The tunnel section terminates in a 1,500 foot open channel between Wellesley and Ash streets, which is lined with formal rows of conifers. This contrasts greatly with the naturalistic contours of the reservoir across the street.

The reservoir covers approximately 66 acres with a maximum depth of 28 feet. About 237 acres in Weston were taken for this project, of which 143 belonged to the Upham family.

Project construction involved the daily employment of several hundred men working around the clock. They were divided into three crews, each on eight hour shifts. Hundreds of tons of explosives were used, shaking nearby houses. Along Ash St, Italian workers were housed in shanties, which were known as the Italian Camp.

In 1901, the weekly Weston column in the Waltham Daily Free Press Tribune reported on a police raid at the Camp: “[Three Weston policemen]…raided the Italian Camps at both ends of the tunnel and secured nearly six half barrels of lager, twenty or twenty-five empty half barrels, 77 bottles of lager, over 100 empty bottles and two bottles empty whiskey jugs…The goods seized are stored in the Town House and present quite a novel appearance for a town the character of Weston.” Police raids continued in 1902. On March 6, 1903, when workers from the east and west ends reached each other, they all broke into a “noisy” celebration.

The chief engineer of the project was Frederic Stearns, whose work has been praised as an engineering masterpiece. A hallmark of Stearns was his belief that technology and nature could thrive together. He brought in the eminent Brookline landscape firm the Olmsted Brothers to develop the 150 acres surrounding the reservoir. The area was planted with conifers and arborvitae to create a parklike character. The excavated material was formed into natural looking masses and was sited to give the appearance of a natural lake with islands and wild wooded shores, irregular, and marked by rough ledge.

Town leaders in this time considered the “metropolitan reservation” and reservoir to be a valuable addition to Weston providing significant open space. The reservoir was physically accessible until 1977. Foremen of the Metropolitan Water Works had to chase off would-be fishermen, “boys who like the sport and to whom the chance of getting caught adds [to] the element of the sport and older persons who find the excellent fish an addition to their tables.” Arrests were made and fines imposed.

The Weston Reservoir and Aqueduct, along with its associated structures, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

04/28/2026

Golfing in Weston, Part 2 –
When land leases along Church St for the golf course were being negotiated in 1916, Robert Winsor sold 50 acres of his estate on what is now Meadowbrook Road. The deed has a clause that “the granted premises shall be used only for a golf course or country club.” In 1917, a nine-hole course and two clay tennis courts were in operation. One of the world’s outstanding golf architects, Donald C. Ross of Scotland, was secured for building the new course (and its subsequent additional nine-holes). The dues schedule for the new club included an entrance fee of $30 and annual dues of $50 per family plus a yearly golf fee of $10 per person. Golf and tennis were permitted on Sundays, but only after church.

The second golf course built in Weston was the Pine Brook Valley Golf Club, which opened in 1924 and was incorporated as Pine Brook Country Club in 1944. Pine Brook was among the first Jewish golf clubs in the country, established in an era when Jews were discriminated against at other country clubs. The course was located on two large parcels of former estate land. On the east side of Newton Street, the 49-acre property of textile manufacturer Francis Foster included a brick mansion, which became the clubhouse and a large barn used as a locker room until it was destroyed by fire in February 1947. The second parcel, 85 acres on the west side of Newton Street, had belonged to gentleman farmers Bancroft and Anne Davis, operators of the model dairy called Ferndale Farm.

Weston’s third golf course, Leo J. Martin, was created beginning in the late 1920s. At that time, Boston had only one public course, at Franklin Park. The first nine holes were laid out partly on land belonging to Riverside Recreation Grounds, an extensive athletic facility created by Charles Wells Hubbard and donated to the Metropolitan Park Commission in 1914. Part of the golf course was on the 19-acre Weston Park, which Hubbard had given to the town in 1892. This parcel was transferred to the control of the Commonwealth under a long-term lease. A third parcel across the Charles River, which Hubbard had sold at a greatly reduced cost to the city of Newton in 1893, was later used for an additional nine holes. Riverside Golf Course, also referred to as Riverside Public Golf Links, opened in May 1930. Despite the Depression, 50,000 rounds of golf were played in 1931 at a cost of $1 each.

Weston also had smaller golf courses that are no longer extant. The Drabbington Lodge on North Ave had a seven-hole course behind the hotel. Estate owner Lincoln Filene, president of Filene’s Department Store, had a small private course on his property on what is now Coburn Road. The lesser-known Flagg Tavern course on Boston Post Road operated in the 1920s. The Trapelo Golf Club operated from 1921 to about 1941 on 54 acres at the northeast corner of Lexington St and North Ave. The nine-hole course and clubhouse were open to members and outsiders. This land was subsequently sold to Kendal Common Inc. and developed as a neighborhood of modern-style houses. In the 1930s, recreational facilities for the theology students at Weston College included a seven-hole golf course.

04/28/2026

Join us this Thursday!

04/24/2026

Golfing in Weston, Part 1 –
Golf got its start in Weston when Rev. Charles F. Russell, minister at First Parish, returned from England with a set of clubs and began hitting balls into nearby pastures. His infatuation quickly spread and a golf club was organized in 1894. The Weston Golf Club was one of the earliest in the nation, with only four golf courses having been built in Mass. at the time. The course was located on the west side of Church St on land leased from Arthur Coburn and his neighbors. Membership was initially open to men only and for the first year an initiation fee was $10 and the annual assessment was $5.

The nine-hole course initially measured about 2,000 yards and increased to 2,444. Holes varied in length from about 160- to 400-yards with names like Orchard, Song, Far, Oak, Hill, Bank, Bunker Hill and Punch Bowl, which was down in the hollow. Some of the greens were surrounded by pipe fences to keep away cows, but the third fairway was a cow pasture. Golfers had to watch their step and caddies would often drive cows out of the way. The entrance to the club was between the red Coburn barn and the adjacent farmer’s cottage. A few hundred yards down the driveway was a 30- by 50-foot clubhouse with a wide porch across the west front. The one large room had a fireplace, built-in benches with cushions, and a table where refreshments were served during tournaments. At either end were men’s and women’s locker rooms and showers.

Arthur Coburn, who owned much of the golf course land, believed in a day of worship and rest and always refused permission to play on Sundays. An 1894 local news article reported the following: “We believe that as a rule people in Weston do – and very properly – object to the playing of sports and games within the corporate limits of the town on Sunday. It is with surprise that they learned of Sumner Paine and Edward A. Wilkie arrested for playing ‘golf’ on the Lord’s Day. If there is any virtue in birth, education and wealth, it should lead the possessor to be an exemplary citizen. There is not the excuse that these parties were ignorant of the law. They acted deliberately and sought of themselves to break down the barriers that New England custom has raised between the probity and morality of a typical New England township and the immorality of France, the most licentious of nations and the one with the least respect for the sanctity of the Sabbath.”

04/21/2026

When you're driving around this time in spring, you will most likely spot a shrub with pink-purple flowers. That is most likely a PJM Rhododendron, which was cultivated by a Weston family – Peter Mezitt and his son Edmund, “Ed.”

In 1917, Peter was hired as the farm superintendent for Marian Case’s Hillcrest Farm. He had a strong talent for nursery plants and she allowed him and his wife Anna to use the farm’s greenhouse space. The Mezitts worked nights and weekends rooting understock and grafting fruit trees to sell to local orchards. In 1923, Case helped the Mezitts finance the purchase of the property at the southwest corner of Winter and Brown streets, including the airfield and district schoolhouse.

The Mezitts founded Weston Nurseries and began by raising annuals and perennials from seed. The airfield was still active, so land not used for crops was rented to pilots. Family stories recall Peter chasing down planes with his truck, preventing takeoff, until pilots had paid their rent. But in 1926, the airfield was destroyed by a massive fire and the Mezitts were able to move into the former schoolhouse and build cold frames and five greenhouses.

By 1929, ten acres were in production. Peter was taking on landscaping jobs and Anna, daughter Laura, and Ed grew and sold perennials.The business and family name grew steadily due to their development of thousands of plant varieties suited to the New England climate and soil conditions, as well as meeting the demand for herbaceous perennials and rock garden plants.

In 1931, the Mezitts bought the house at the corner of Wellesley St. and South Ave. for office and retail sales. Plants were grown and displayed on fields at the northwest and southwest corners of the intersection. In 1938, another 62 acres on Winter St. were added to the extensive nursery fields, including what is now Sherburn Circle. By the 40s, the Mezitts had full-scale production on 200 acres. Rhododendrons and mountain laurel still flourish on this land, particularly on Highland Ave across from Love Lane.

In 1940, Ed and his wife purchased a house on the corner of Brown St. and South Ave. However, the family soon realized that post-war development would eventually limit their operations in Weston; the family found land in Hopkinton that mimicked Weston’s hillside growing conditions.

In the fall of 1944, Ed planted seedlings from his first attempt at hybridizing on the Hopkinton land. He crossed a native Carolina rhododendron that was growing in his Weston yard with seeds from an exotic variety. After their busy spring season in Weston, the family visited the Hopkinton nursery. Having forgotten about the test planting the family came upon a great surprise. Ed wrote, “My heart still skips a beat when I recall the reaction of our entire family when we saw that ribbon of brilliant pink running across the hill. My Dad was so enthusiastic about these little dwarf plants…in full bloom that he immediately made the remark that this was the most spectacular rhododendron of our time.”

The plant was named in honor of Peter John Mezitt, and is known worldwide as one of the most resilient rhododendrons. The success of the PJM encouraged Ed to continue “pollen-dabbing” and his hybrids became known throughout the horticultural world.

04/21/2026

Join us at our spring lecture:

"Mercy Otis Warren and the Writings of a Revolutionary”
with Michele Gabrielson
Thursday, April 30, 7:30 pm
Weston Public Library

On the eve of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, step back in time and converse with a founding mother, Mercy Otis Warren. Often described as the “muse of the revolution,” Warren brilliantly used her passion for poetry and prose to persuade others to join in the revolutionary cause. Listen and discuss with historian and award-winning educator Michele Gabrielson as she tells the story of how Warren rejected the conventional expectations of women in the 18th century. In 1805 she published one of the earliest histories of the American Revolution, a three-volume History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution.

Michele Gabrielson is an award-winning local history teacher and historic interpreter of the 18th century. Gabrielson serves as the secretary for the Mercy Otis Warren Society, a nonprofit dedicated to helping preserve the contributions of Warren. She is a member of the Authenticity Standards Committee for Minuteman National Historic Park and coordinator of the Battle Road Guides for the annual reenactment of the Battle of Lexington and Concord. Among her other honors, she received a 2024 Rising Star Award for Public History by the Massachusetts History Alliance and was a finalist for the 2024 Massachusetts History Teacher of the Year.

04/16/2026

Part 2: Weston’s Rural Character

When Weston College announced its anticipated sale in 1970, a special committee was appointed to help acquire 300-acres of woodlands. The committee, though, went further and conducted an exhaustive analysis of the town’s remaining open land and prepared an acquisition program. Development at this point was moving at a rate of some 200 acres a year and reports indicated that all of the noted open land could be gone within a decade. The argument was made to acquire land with a broad authorization since land purchase was constricted by time factors. The 1972 Town Meeting unanimously authorized a bond of up to $2.8 million for competitive land purchases.

By 1974, most of that money had been spent to create a “Green Belt” from the northwest corner south through the Jericho Town Forest and former Paine land and then easterly to link with the Weston Reservoir. Some of the money also secured outlying Weston College land. After a contentious Town Meeting request and a state-matching grant were secured, the remaining 146 acres at Weston College were acquired in 1977. Between 1972 and 1977, close to 60 transactions resulted in an additional 1,115 acres of open space.

In all, $5.1 million was spent to secure 1,878 acres for conservation:
-- Expansions of Highland Town Forest from 197 to 285 acres, Jericho from 279 to 547, and Ogilvie from 67 to 194
--- 45-acre Coburn Meadow
-- 82-acre Sears Land
-- Cat Rock; and
-- Doublet Hill, Pine Street, Blaney Meadow, Danforth land, and other southside parcels

At the town’s 275th anniversary in 1988, the relevance of these two decades was noted: “Weston is fortunate in having individuals in the post-war period who were ready to give leadership to the idea of having the Town acquire land while it was still available and saving it for future generations to enjoy and be nourished by…this did not come easily or all at once, but step by slow step. Vision of the goal, the education of the unaware public, and effective action by caring individuals were and are the key to conservation in Weston.”

04/14/2026

Part 1: Weston’s Rural Character

Around the 1950s, Weston was confronted with a major issue: the most extensive growth in the town's history where the population had increased by 64% and dwellings up by 68%. When 127 parcels of real estate had changed hands, it was noted: “Barring either continued inflation or an economic ‘bust,’ it looks as though Weston ten years hence will bear only a remote resemblance, physically, to the quiet country town it has been these centuries past.” The Selectmen recognized the town’s “paradoxical position of a rural community in the ever-growing shadow of increasing urban development,” and so slowing down growth by preserving Weston’s rural character came to the forefront.

A town forest committee was established in 1953, an odd sale to townspeople given that there were only 150 state forests across the state, but Weston held only 50-acres of protected land. The committee identified 400 acres in the Jericho area and another tract between Highland and Wellesley streets as priority acquisitions. In 1955, the town made its first land purchase of 147 acres east of Highland Street on the former Paine Estate, accompanied by a donation of 5 acres with a view of Mt Wachusett. A separate donation of 40 acres was made to begin the Jericho Town Forest. In 1960, another 48 acres off Sudbury Road was purchased to begin the Ogilvie Town Forest.

The town regularly appropriated amounts from $10,000 - $25,000 annually during the 50s and 60s for conservation land and within those 10 years, Weston gained about 763 acres of conservation land. The 1960 Town Report noted that public acceptance was increasing and, “that sensible preservation of the natural assets of a residential town can result in substantial appreciation of residential values…”

Weston Historical Society - Weston, Massachusetts

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