Album
Bateman's Pond Shoreline in Estabrook Woods
[Click photos for larger versions.]
Note: The eastern shoreline of Bateman's Pond is the private
property of Middlesex School. The pond, however, is a great pond, owned
by the commonwealth with certain public rights of access. In the
woodlands east of the pond, the School has traditionally accepted public
walking that respected its students' need for privacy; this is confirmed
in the settlement agreement with the Concord NRC. Please be conservative
in the use of this right and privilege
|
 |
This historic photo was taken
about 1892 from the northwest cove across from the Middlesex boathouse,
looking to the wooded eastern shore of Bateman's Pond. It was taken by the
noted Herbert W. Gleason, who for forty years photographed places Thoreau
frequented. This is reproduced from Thoreau's Writings. |
| And this is the reciprocal
view, showing the Middlesex School boathouse and, to the upper right, the
northwest cove behind the library. In the early 1900s, Middlesex master
and naturalist Reginald Heber Howe would document the rare species seen
near here, such as the great gray owl, the surf scoter, and a
now-endangered dragonfly. |
 |
 |
Behind Eliot Hall at
Middlesex School there is an inconspicuous path. This is the old causeway,
which has provided access to the woods since at least the early 1700s,
when references to it start appearing in deeds, according to Dr. Janet
Buerger. (This would be under the proposed new bridge and causeway.) A
wetland nearby has four vernal pools and five-state- listed rare species.
A small brook flows under the causeway, goes behind the Theater Arts
building, and feeds Bateman's Pond. In 1906, the
Thoreau Museum of Natural History
once stood to the left of the old causeway; it is now the left classroom
wing of Eliot Hall, but it would make a fine ecology center. |
| Up the hill from the old
causeway, on the right just after the road bends to the south to head past
Bateman's Pond, is the Paul Adams-Rebecca Estabrook Farmstead.
Massachusetts Historical Commission declares it a National
Register-eligible Historic Site. The old cellar (now but a dent in the
earth) is hidden behind some old, falling-down fruit trees on the right
side of the road. Archaeologists have written big reports on what they
have found, which was a lot. There still is a fine old well in the
puckerbrush in back. There is a wonderful
drawing of the old farm in
the history section here. |
 |
 |
The mist, the soft green of
the tiny leaves, and the weathered forest floor tells us it is April.
Bateman's Pond is faintly visible at the lower left. In the autumn,
Thoreau wrote about the scarlet oaks, those burning bushes, at Bateman's
Pond and his wild apple harvest [click
here for the text of his journal entry]. |
Go to next page
of images of Bateman's Pond
|
