Borderland State Park

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Borderland State Park is a history and nature preserve with public recreational features located in the towns of Easton and Sharon, Massachusetts. The state park encompasses 1,843 acres (746 ha) surrounding the Ames Mansion, which was built in 1910. The area was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Borderland Historic District in 1997. It is operated by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, with an appointed advisory council that participates in policy decision-making.[1]

History

In 1906, Oakes Ames, a Harvard botanist (son of Massachusetts governor Oliver Ames and grandson of U.S. Representative Oakes Ames), and his wife Blanche Ames Ames (daughter of Mississippi governor Adelbert Ames, but not related to Oakes Ames), an artist and feminist, purchased land on the border of Sharon and Easton. There they built a mansion which still stands and created a nature preserve with woodland paths and roadways and man-made ponds. The family’s home, a three-story, 20-room stone mansion constructed in 1910, was built largely at the direction of Blanche Ames.[2][3] Her paintings still hang on the walls and much of the original furnishings are still intact. After remaining in the family for sixty-five years, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts acquired the Borderland estate in 1971, two years after the death of Blanche Ames, and opened it as a state park.[1]

Activities and amenities

The park has more than 20 miles (32 km) of wooded trails for hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding. Trails include a portion of the Bay Circuit Trail and the Quarry Loop to Moyles Quarry (a.k.a. Canton Viaduct Quarry) which supplied the facing stone for the Canton Viaduct in 1835.[4] The park features a visitors center, pond fishing and canoeing, ice skating, sledding, and disc golf. Mansion tours are offered on an occasional basis during warm weather months.[5] The garden area is available for wedding ceremonies.

Borderland is the home course for Oliver Ames High School cross country team.[6] It is also utilized by the Old Colony League for its annual cross country meet, hosts the Hockomock League Championship meet and various invitational meets on the 3.1-mile-loop (5.0 km) course, and was the site of the World Masters Flying Disc Championships in 1996.

In popular culture

The park has been used in a commercial, a documentary, and the film Mermaids. Scenes from the Martin Scorsese movie Shutter Island were shot at the stone lodge next to Leach Pond in 2008.[7] Ames Mansion interiors were used as a filming location for Ghostbusters in 2016.[8] A fictionalized version of the park is featured in the novel Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Borderland State Park". MassParks. Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
  2. ^ "Life at Borderland". Borderland State Park. Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. Retrieved July 29, 2013.
  3. ^ "Ames Mansion". Places Where Women Made History. National Park Service. March 30, 1998. Retrieved July 29, 2013.
  4. ^ "Trail Map" (PDF). Borderland State Park. Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. Retrieved July 29, 2013.
  5. ^ "Plan Your Visit". Borderland State Park. Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. Retrieved July 29, 2013.
  6. ^ Stewart, Louis (September 19, 2013). "Oliver Ames cross-country team runs past Canton". Wicked Local. Gatehouse Media. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
  7. ^ Downing, Vicki-Ann (May 1, 2008). "Hollywood, Scorsese sets sights on Borderland State Park". Patriot Ledger. Quincy, Mass. Retrieved September 14, 2014.
  8. ^ Stamp, Elizabeth (July 12, 2016). "Go Inside the Filming Locations and Set Designs of Ghostbusters". Architectural Digest. Retrieved November 20, 2016.
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Further reading

  • Behrens, Roy R., "The Artistic and Scientific Collaboration of Blanche Ames Ames and Adelbert Ames II," Leonardo Journal 31.1 (1998): 47-54.

External links

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