Once upon a time this was a crucial vantage point. The Roxbury High Fort. Imagine soldiers here during the American Revolutionary War. They looked out over the land. Roxbury was an independent town then. It was connected to Boston by only a narrow strip of land.
The Roxbury High Fort site once held earthwork fortifications. These were built by the Continental Army. This was during the Siege of Boston. The hill provided a great view of the entire area.
The High Fort, or Upper Fort, sat on the highest point in Roxbury. Colonists had an optimal view of the British army from here. It was believed that Washington regarded it as the best site of all the works. The Fort Hill neighborhood gets its name from the High Fort.
Later in 1868 Roxbury was annexed to Boston. Then in 1869, the Cochituate Standpipe was built. It’s also known as Fort Hill Tower. The Cochichuate Water Company built it. The tower is 70 feet tall.
Nathaniel Jeremiah Bradlee designed the Cochituate Standpipe. He was a Gothic Revival architect. He also designed Danvers State Hospital. He designed Boston’s Young Men’s Christian Union Building too. The standpipe stored water from Lake Cochituate. It helped modernize Roxbury’s water system.
The standpipe’s use as a water tower didn’t last long. It was only used for ten years. The name Cochituate comes from the water company that owned it. The tower is white brick. It has lancet windows around the neck. The top has eight sides and a green steeple.
By the 1960s, the tower fell into disrepair. The original cast iron balcony was removed. In the early 1980s, the City of Boston restored the tower.
The park around the tower was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1895. It opened to the public in 1917. The Roxbury High Fort site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
Today the area is also known as Highland Park. The park and tower are under the jurisdiction of the Boston Public Facilities Department. In 2013, the park got a facelift. It received a fresh coat of paint and window repairs.
The Roxbury Highlands and its puddingstone cliffs played a role in the Revolutionary War. Fort Hill is named after two Roxbury forts. They protected Boston and the harbor from the British army.
The low fort was near Highland, Linwood, and Cedar Streets. The high fort protected the road from Pierpont Village to Dedham. It was on the top of one of the steepest hills in Roxbury. It’s now Highland Park.
Faced with the forts, the British evacuated Boston in 1776. The Highlands became a vacation destination after the war. Country estates and summer cottages replaced farms.
The low fort was demolished to build the Alvah Kittredge mansion in 1836. The city of Boston demolished the high fort to build the Cochituate Standpipe in 1869.
So next time you are at Roxbury High Fort remember its layers of history. It’s a fort site a water tower and a park. It’s a place where the past and present meet.