Eliot Tower
A stone tower with a view of Boston and the harbor
The story
Before you is the observation tower on Great Blue Hill. Locally it is called Eliot Tower. It was built of rubblestone in the 1930s by workers of the Civilian Conservation Corps, a government program that gave work to young unemployed men during the Great Depression. The tower is 35 feet tall, about 11 meters. From the top you can see almost the whole horizon, about 270 degrees: Boston, Boston Harbor and the South Shore. The Friends of the Blue Hills write that on a clear day you can even see Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire, almost 70 miles, about 110 kilometers, away. Next to the tower is a small granite bridge over a little ravine. It was built around 1905 in memory of Charles Eliot. This landscape architect worked for the Metropolitan Park Commission and did a great deal to create public parks around Boston, the Blue Hills among them. Eliot died in 1897 at the age of 37. A bench and a memorial plaque are built into the bridge.
On the trail
- Great Blue Hill — about 1.6 miles (2.5 km) round trip, 1–1.5 h
Sources
- Wikipedia — Great Blue Hill Observation Tower: a Civilian Conservation Corps tower, 35 feet
- Wikipedia — Eliot Memorial Bridge: a granite footbridge in memory of Charles Eliot
- Wikipedia — Charles Eliot (landscape architect): 1859–1897
- Friends of the Blue Hills — Great Blue Hill: the Red Dot Trail from the Trailside Museum, marked by red dots; Mount Monadnock visible on a clear day
This text was written by AI from open sources. An expert will still check it. Found a mistake? Write to us. Support
