Gas Line Replacement in Chestnut Hill, MA

The boundary between Newton and Brighton was originally more or less straight northwest-southeast, following today’s boundary at the east edge of the Newton Commonwealth Golf Course, and the west boundary of the MBTA rail yards. It followed what is today St. Thomas More Road and Chestnut Hill Driveway through swamp land that is today the west edge of the Chestnut Hill Reservoir, and then rejoined today’s city limit that runs essentially with the portion of Beacon St. that forms the west boundary of the Reservoir, and continues southeast to today’s triple point between Boston, Brookline, and Newton near the intersection of Reservoir Road and Middlesex Road. Around the 1870s, the Lawrence farm land that is today bounded by Commonwealth Avenue, the slope dividing Boston College upper campus from lower campus, Beacon St., Chestnut Hill Driveway, and St. Thomas More Rd. was ceded from Newton to Boston, so that Boston could construct the Chestnut Hill Reservoir. What is today the Boston College lower campus and stadium was excavated to become the Lawrence Basin of the Reservoir, paired with the surviving Bradlee Basin, to receive water from the Sudbury Aqueduct. Beacon St. was rerouted around the south and west edges of the Bradlee Basin. The two halves of the Reservoir were separated to preserve the Cochituate Aqueduct, which ran under a causeway separating the two halves of the reservoir, now roughly St. Thomas More Rd. and Chestnut Hill Driveway, and a short stretch of Beacon St.

While most of Chestnut Hill remained farmland well into the early 20th century, the area around the reservoir was developed in 1870 by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of Central Park in New York City and of the Emerald Necklace in Boston and Brookline.

Because of the significance of its landscape and architecture, the National Register of Historic Places designated parts of Chestnut Hill as historic districts in 1980s. Examples of Colonial, Italianate, , Tudor Revival, and Victorian architectural styles are evident in the village’s country estates and mansions. The Boston College campus is itself an early example of Collegiate Gothic architecture.