A brief history of Prospect Hill

Tonight, Dmitry and I introduced Leo to Prospect Hill. Leo had never been there before but he toughed it out through two fronts and two back side hills in the dark. Dmitry even climbed up the fire tower on the back side in the dark to spook us.

It seems every time someone new comes up to Prospect there's a long list of questions like "What IS this place?" and "When did the ski area close down?" "How did you find this?" and "How long is the road?"

It got me thinking that I should research it a little bit. And since there's nothing good on TV tonight, I figured no time like the present. A quick review of my training logs show I personally discovered Prospect Hill in 1995 while working at a job in Chestnut Hill and commuting to Lowell every day. Any little "green" spot on the map between Newton and Lowell was on my radar that year.

But the history of Prosect Hill goes much further back. According to the "history" section of the Prospect Hill Advocacy Group's web site, Prospect Hill Park was created in 1893.

"At 485 feet above sea level, the higher of the two is the second highest point in the vicinity of Boston, only the Great Blue Hill stands taller. This peak has been called Great Prospect, but is more often referred to as Big Prospect, while its smaller associate, which stands at 435 feet, is known as Little Prospect. Both peaks provide excellent views of the Boston basin."

There's not much information available on the park in the early 1900s, but this site offers a great history of the ski area at Prospect Hill, which was founded in the 1940s by the town of Waltham. Originally there was a 700' rope tow to the top and two t-bars were installed later (there's a detailed history of it on the site). The most unique characteristic was that the steepest or "expert" portion of the hill was at the BOTTOM instead of the top, as it is at most ski areas. So the bunny slope was off to the right with no t-bar--just walk up, slide down. And the easier part was at the top just below the water towers. So beginners would take the t-bar up there and just go halfway down and stop. I don't know HOW they get down the bottom again though. I guess after a few beginner runs, they assumed you could tackle the steep part.

The area was closed in 1988 and reopened briefly a year or two later before being closed for good. According to one of the personal memories on the site, the second-chance failed for three reasons: no liquor license, no snow and the snow cannon literally blew up on the hill.





This is a pretty good photo of the area from the late 1970s--you can see the road we run up snaking its way up.


And there's a REALLY old picture HERE of folks on top of Prospect Hill. Again not sure what the date of this is, but it came from the web site for the Waltham Land Trust.

If you're interested in learning more about Prospect Hill or taking some hikes up there with a group, I'd suggest joining the mailing list for the Prospect Hill Advocacy Group.

If you're interested in history of other local ski areas like that, check out this site. What a great resource for finding more places to hold hill workouts!! Also, this site lists all the significant hills in Waltham (diabolical laughter...)