Arnold Arboretum.

Last Sunday we were hanging out in Jamaica Plain and Brookline, so we decided to check out the Arnold Arboretum in Boston.

The oldest arboretum (tree sanctuary) in the country, AA is named after its financier, whaling tycoon and horticulturalist James Arnold. Visitors come primarily to stroll amongst the exotic greenery, which includes bonsai and lilac trees, along with several other non-native plant and tree species. Because Arnold left most of his estate to Harvard (HA-vahd), and the school uses the arboretum as a nature museum, it's only fair for the city to allow the university to rent the land for just $1 per year.

Open every day until dusk; visitor center open 9am-4pm weekdays, 10am-4pm Sat, 12pm-4pm Sun. Closed holidays, entry always free!

Link to Arnold Arboretum website.

Jen thinks I look like a vampire when I wear this coat.

A mid-century-style gazebo for chillin.

All the plants and shrubs have these metal tags to tell what they are. I thought they were American Express Gold Cards at first!

Click any of the images for a full-screen version.

Check out this teeny bonsai Japanese Maple! How cute!

Picture of a dude taking a picture of a sign. Funny.

'Tis the season for Holly!

I never knew holly trees were so huge!

The AA is part of Boston's famed "Emerald Necklace", a string of green spaces that Beantown wears proudly and especially shines throughout Summer and Fall. The Necklace was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, who also designed Central Park in NYC. Olmstead designed the park system in 1883 after moving to Brookline (a seperate town that's really "part" of Boston) from New York. The Necklace was originally designed to be an uninterrupted 5-mile walkway from Back Bay to Franklin Park, where Bostonians could stroll barefoot and without worry. While I probably wouldn't recommend walking the route barefoot today, it remains as an incredibly well-thought-out system of greenways, ponds and trails throughout the city.

Unfortunately, the necklace has been broken up over the years, thanks to increased traffic volume, overpasses, bypasses and roads, not to mention construction and other urban blight, but there is good news on the horizon: the city planners and conservation groups are putting together a master plan for the severed sections of the Necklace and together are trying to balance path restoration with traffic concerns. The idea being to re-link all the green areas back into one complete necklace.



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(some text excerpted from the NFT Guide to Boston, 2009, published by Not For Tourists, Inc., © 2009. www.notfortourists.com)