September 24, 2023 – Lynn, Massachusetts
Issue: Straightforward
Parking: 30 Circuit Ave, Lynn, MA 01902
Parking is out there on the circle on the finish of Circuit Avenue.
Overview:
Excessive Rock Reservation (aka Excessive Rock Park) is a metropolis park within the Highlands neighborhood of Lynn, Massachusetts. Designed in 1907 by the Olmsted Brothers, the roughly 7-acre park encompasses the summit space of a hill with commanding views of the encircling space, in addition to the Atlantic Ocean which is roughly half a mile away.
Excessive Rock Reservation
The park’s principal attraction is the Excessive Rock Tower, a stone construction measuring 85 ft excessive and accomplished in 1905. The park was listed on the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations in 1979.
Excessive Rock Tower
Historical past:
Within the seventeenth century, Excessive Rock served as assembly place for the Pawtucket tribe and because the headquarters of their chief, Nanepashemet.
Within the late 1840’s, Jesse Hutchinson (1813-1853) of the Hutchinson Household Singers, a politically-active abolitionist singing group, bought the 5-acre parcel of land on the summit of Excessive Rock.
Excessive Rock – Picture Credit score: Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division
In 1847, Jesse Hutchinson made plans to construct the unique Excessive Rock Tower, which was designed by native surveyor, architect and historian Alonzo Lewis. The tower was accomplished in 1848 and a piazza and balcony had been later added to the construction.
Excessive Rock Tower – 1864
The Hutchinson household felt very strongly about making Excessive Rock open to the general public and believed it ought to be used as an “Institute of Superior Thought” and a “free rostrum for the choice of all the good questions of the day.”
Towards the top of Jesse Hutchinson’s life in 1853, he determined to provide the summit of Excessive Rock to the town for the development of an observatory.
Through the Civil Conflict, the Hutchinson household held nightly concert events and rallies on the property. Finally the tower fell into disrepair and vandals burned it down in celebration of the Fall of Richmond in April of 1865.
By 1904 the town additionally bought extra land across the summit to create Excessive Rock Reservation, which is now considered one of Lynn’s oldest parks.
In 1905, the town constructed Excessive Rock Tower, which was designed by H.Ok. Wheeler & Charles Betton and made from granite. Excessive Rock Tower was constructed on prime of an outcrop of porphyry (crystal crammed granite). The tower was formally devoted in December 1905.
Excessive Rock Tower – 1930
Excessive Rock Tower is featured prominently on the Lynn metropolis seal.
Official Seal of Lynn, Massachusetts
Excessive Rock Tower was added to the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations on October 11, 1979.
The lands surrounding the tower had been protected by The Belief for Public Land and conveyed to the Metropolis of Lynn in 1988.
The Tower:
In 1905, the Metropolis of Lynn commissioned the development of the 85-foot stone, Romanesque-style Excessive Rock Tower. It was designed by architects H.Ok. Wheeler and Charles Betton.
Excessive Rock Tower
The Metropolis of Lynn periodically opens the tower and observatory to the general public free of charge use of the telescope. Registrants are provided night-sky investigations of galaxies, star clusters, planets and the floor of the Earth’s moon.
Excessive Rock Tower
In 1998, Excessive Rock Tower was restored with the assistance of a Massachusetts Historic Fee grant and a brand new astronomical observatory changing the unique observatory.
Excessive Rock Tower
In 1906, from April to December, 50,000 folks visited the Excessive Rock Tower. As we speak the tower is usually closed to guests, though the bottom across the tower is open for these which might be looking for views.
Excessive Rock Tower
Excessive Rock Tower
Rising to a peak of 170 ft above sea degree, Excessive Rock is lower than three-quarters of a mile from the ocean and instructions unobstructed views of Boston, Nahant, and Swampscott.
View east from Excessive Rock Tower
Egg Rock (generally known as Elephant Rock) in Nahant Bay, is a 3-acre island southeast of Excessive Rock Tower. It was previously the positioning of a lighthouse generally known as Egg Rock Gentle however now could be owned by the state of Massachusetts as a hen sanctuary. Egg Rock could be seen clearly from the coasts of Nahant, Swampscott, and Lynn. Egg Rock is the setting for Sylvia Plath’s poem “Suicide off Egg Rock,” and likewise seems in her novel, The Bell Jar.
View of Egg Rock Island from Excessive Rock Tower
Since it is a quick and straightforward stroll, it may be mixed with different stone towers within the space. Slayton Memorial Tower is about 7 miles away in Melrose, and Wright’s Tower is about 18 miles away in Medford.
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