West Roxbury), MA

RECONASSANCE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY Allandale Woods Park Boston (West Roxbury), MA Prepared for Boston Parks and Recreation Department City of Boston Prepared by Joseph Bagley City Archaeologist Boston Landmarks Commission Environment Department City of Boston Introduction Allandale Woods is an 86-acre Urban Wild Park located in the Boston neighborhoods of Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury (figure 1). In the summer of 2014, a walkover survey was conducted covering the entirety of the park with the goal of producing sensitivity maps that will aid the Boston Parks and Recreation in avoiding or mitigating impacts to known or potential archaeological sites within the park in future improvement projects. Brief Park History (The following section is a summary of the work of Richard Heath and Richard Primack, no date, attached to this report as appendix A) No Native American cultural materials have been found within the Allandale Woods. Just east of the property, within the Arnold Arboretum, there are over a dozen Native archaeological sites ranging in age from 7,500-400 years in age in topography that resembles that of the Allandale Woods. The Park began as a small portion of the massive estate of Thomas and Joseph Weld, who arrived in Roxbury in 1632. At this time, the property was used as farmland. After passing through several generations, a portion of the Weld estate was sold to Thomas Williams in 1806 who built a farm with several outbuildings in the southern portion of the park near the present-day Annunciation Church (Figure 2). In 1864, 20 acres in the eastern portion of the current park was sold to Henry Wellington near where Centre and Allandale Streets intersect. This property was transferred to Mary Souther in 1884. The Southers owned a farmhouse and associated buildings, possibly built by Wellington, and also had a substantial 1870’s spring-house built on top of a natural spring on the property (figure 2). The spring-house is still standing (figure 3). The City of Boston purchased the remnants of the Williams estate in 1894 for the purpose of creating a connecting highway between the West Roxbury Parkway and Arnold Arboretum. This road, the VFW Parkway (figure 1) was eventually built in 1936. Sometime after 1894, a large wall with concrete top was built along the boundary between private and City-owned land within the park. This prominent landscape feature stretches nearly the width of the entire park. In 1891, Mary (Weld) Pratt and Edward Brandegee built a large estate on the north side of Allandale Woods with smaller buildings and out buildings located within private land on the northern boundary of Allandale Woods. This large Itallianate building included garden sheds and livestock buildings that can be found in ruin within the park alongside marble landscape elements from the property’s formal gardens (figure 4). The remaining area of the park not already owned by the City was purchased in 1975. Today, Allandale woods is the second-largest unimproved park parcel in the City and is used daily by walkers, joggers, and local residents for passive recreation. Topographic Description Allandale Woods consists of a hilly landscape dominated by massive outcroppings of Roxbury puddingstone surrounded by low-lying wetlands on the northern end of the property and rolling topography south of the VFW parkway (figure 2). Bisecting the property from west to east is the Bussey Brook which flows in a narrow flood plain roughly along the route of the VFW Parkway. Man-made topographic modification is greatest along the southeastern edge of the park where buildings and quarries have cut into the southern edge of the prominent puddingstone outcrops along the VFW Parkway. Native American Sensitivity While no Native sites are known within the park, there is great potential for their existence. Figure 5 illustrates the location of “high”, “medium”, and “low” sensitivity areas for Native American cultural materials. Sensitivity refers to the likelihood of there being preserved cultural materials in a given location. Cultural preferences range for site locations, but in general flat areas near water, prominent high places, locations with boulders that could be easily transformed into rock shelters with minimal construction, and areas near natural features such as waterfalls, confluences of rivers, and cliffs were preferred for camps, tool processing, ceremonial sites, or villages. For these reasons, relatively flat areas near or overlooking sources of fresh water were ranked as “high” as well as prominent points within the landscape that could have served as lookout points in less-vegetated conditions. “Medium” sensitivity was assigned to areas that possessed similar topographic characteristics of “high” areas, but their close proximity to even more favorable use areas or the lack of proximity to water made them less- likely to contain cultural materials, though still possible. Finally “low” areas were assigned to areas where steep topography, wetland, flood plain, greatly undulating topography, or recently modified landscape eliminated the likelihood that significant cultural materials would be located. Post-1630 Sensitivity During the research portion of this reconnaissance survey and during the walkover survey, several areas of archaeological concern became apparent. In general, though there is great use of the immediate area during the post-1630 period for farming, the areas around the park that contained the largest historic archaeological resources associated with the history presented earlier in this report lie just outside of the park’s boundaries. That said there are numerous historic resources located within Allandale woods. Figure 6 illustrates the areas of low, moderate, and high sensitivity. High sensitivity was used to denote areas with known historic resources that were found either through the use of historic maps or through visual survey of the property. Moderate sensitivity is used to denote the area surrounding high sensitivity sites where activities related to the high sensitivity areas may have occurred but are less likely than within the site proper. Low areas are those were no visual or map-based evidence for human use beyond agricultural pursuits were visible. At the eastern corner of the property (figure 6.1), the u-shaped fieldstone foundation of a probable late 19th or early 20th century ice house is located adjacent to the vernal pool. The collapsed roof is still visible within the foundation indicating it has fairly recently collapsed (figure 7) Due West of the Springhouse Residents along the Spring House Trail, an area of brick supports and a concrete foundation were encountered just off trail (figures 6.2, 8). This area appears to be a 19th- century structure based on scattered white ware on the ground surface and is likely an outbuilding associated with the nearby Wellington-Souther property, now the Springhouse Residences. Extant building foundations of a barn or animal pen were encountered at the northern edge of the Allandale Woods near Rock Pond Trail (figures 6.3, 9). These foundations and associated scattered farm equipment and marble architectural elements are likely those discussed above as belonging to the 19th century Mary Pratt and Edward Brandegee property. A lengthy cart path was encountered stretching across most of the park (figures 6.4, 10). This pathway appears to extend from the Pratt-Brandegee property along Rock Pond, and southwest to an unknown destination, and eastward towards a second unknown location. This historic resource is now incorporated into the larger of the pathways located within the park and visually and physically represents previous transportation routes through the property. The post-1894 stone wall marking the boundary between city-owned and private land extends the entire east-west length of the park and is a prominent feature of the landscape (figures 6.5, 11). Several breaks in the wall allow passage over or through this feature. Stone steps up to the top of the wall serve the same purpose elsewhere. A possible puddingstone quarry was encountered at the southern end of Rock Pond consisting of a flat- faced cliff of puddingstone in roughly-rectangular areas near an intersection of pathways (figures 6.6, 12). While this may be natural in origin, the flatness of the rock faces and overall shape of the localized area are visually distinctive from the surrounding outcrops of rock and indicate man-made modifications, likely quarrying. The area around where Rock Pond Trail intersects Allandale Street at the northern edge of the Park is indicated in maps as belonging to the farm/property of the Brandegee-Pratt-Tufts families in the late 19th century. This area is designated high due to its concentration of historic buildings and a spring, nearby (figures 6.7, 13). Just south of the Brandegee-Pratt-Tufts farm is a large u-shaped foundation cut into the hillside near the cart path next to Rock Pond (figures 6.8, 14). It is highly likely that this represents a large ice house built to hold ice harvested at the Rock Pond. Though no date can be easily assigned to the foundation, it is likely associated with the 19th century use of the nearby farm, though could date earlier. Along the southern edge of Allandale Street, just over the stone wall marking the northern edge of Allandale Woods, four well-like structures sit in a rough line along the street (figures 6.9, 15). Three of these appear to be made from fieldstones arranged in a circular shape and remain open to the air. The fourth structure is slightly smaller in width and currently has a iron cover. It is possible that the first three structures represent tree wells built around extant trees that needed protection from road fill as Allandale Street was expanded. The fourth appears to be a true well structure, likely associated with the Brandegee-Pratt property.

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