FORM H N PARKS AND USGS Quad Area(s) Form No.
Forms within
LA1\JDSCAPE FEATURES I Marlboro I __ 5__ 1 I 903 904
Massachusetts Historical Commission
80 Boylston Street
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Town Ma rlborDllgb
Place (neighborhood or village) _
MOllut pleasant Hjll
'\ Address GranOff Boulevard
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\ Historic Name \Vafd Park
Ownership: [ private [X] public
Type of Park or Landscape Feature
(check one):
X park X farm land
green or common
garden
boulevard/parkway
other
Ij mine or guany
training field
_
Sketch Map Date of Construction _~1~9~?~S-~2~6~ _
Draw a map of the area indicating properties within
it. Number each property for which individual Source ...MarlborolJ(Yh;;> Annual Rept s
inventory forms have been completed. Label streets,
including route numbers, if any. Attach a separate Landscape architect N
...•.•..•
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sheet If space is not sufficient here. Indicate north.
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:hVr'-61?. ~L'v':b Location of Plans _
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, '2(1 ~jJ , / -, t: Alterations/Intrusions (with dates) _
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A,_ . J r Several modem sports facilities: small pool
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\J}\ - C) r<; -..... / .l' bouse (See Pave
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Condition
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2.;)--,l.{... D 'J .. Acreage fa 17 acres
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Recorded b~' - A OIJf Forbes
. conSlIltant Setting In hollow between residential neighbor-
Organization for Marlboro Hist COUlUl haods of M1 Pleasant and FainnQJIDt Hj1ls
Date Gran~er Blvd at N end
PARKS AND LANDSCAPES FORM
VISUAUDESIGN ASSESSMENT [X] see continuation sheet
Describe topography and layout. Note structures sucfl as bandstands, gazebos, sheds, stone walls, monuments, ana fountains.
Note landscaping features such as forma! plantings, agricultural plantings, and bodies of water. If possible, compare Current
appearance with original.
Artemus Ward Park is a ca. 17-acre oblong open space in the heart of Marlborough center. It
occupies a wide hollow just southwest of the commercial downtown, and is overlooked by Mt.
Pleasant Hill to the west, and Fairmount Hill to the southeast. Stretching south from today's
Granger Boulevard to South street, it is bordered on the east by Liberty Street, and tbe northwest
by New and Hayden Streets. The Bigelow School (See Form #88,) is situated at the park's
southwest comer.
At the southern end, adjoining the scbool property, are six tennis courts and an oval wading pool,
which has a modern cabana structure facing its north side. A children's playground lies east of the )
tennis courts. (Cont.)
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE [J see continuation sheet
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Discuss history of use. Evaluate the historical associations of the landscape/park with the community.
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Upon his death, Artemus Ward (1848-1925, ) left $35,000 to the city in his will for a memorial
family gate at the entrance to tbe new 17-acre Ward Park. The gate was built that same year by
Marlborough's most prominent builder, Thomas Hurley. Over the years, the park gradually
became the city's most complete outdoor recreational facility, with a track, football field, tennis
courts, and spectator stands. The Kiwanis Club later sponsored the building of a wading pool at
the west end of the meadow.
This park occupies what may be the longest continuous open space in Marlborough. The meadow
was part of the houselot portion of the old Ward/Hayden farm, which, WIth its venerable
farmbouse--twice burned, and used as a garrison during King Philip's War-vdated to the earliest
years of the town. The property passed down from the Ward through tbe Hayden family. The
house was gone by the end of tbe nineteenth century, and its replacement was built at #35 Hayden
Street (MHC# 373) in about 1890. Over two centuries most of the land was gradually subdivided
and sold for tbe building of the neighborhoods south of West Main Street, but a ca. twenty-acre
parcel (most of it remaining from the original William Ward fann,) was acquired by tbe city in the
early part of tbis century, first for skating pond, and later developed as a playground, called Hayden
Meadow Playground. Artemus Ward, a descendant of William Ward and of his great-grandson,
Gen. Artemus Ward, first Commander-in-Chief in the American Revolution, dedicated the gateway
(See Form#904. *) to the memory of both ancestors, and today the entire park is named for bim.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES:
Centennial '90: Marlborough the City. 1990.
Hudson.
Bigelow.
Marlborough Annual Reports.
[ ] Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, you must attach a completed
National Register Criteria Statement form.
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property
Marlborough Ward Park
Massachusetts Historical Commission
80 Boylston Street Area Form No.
Boston, MA 02116 E 903
VISUAL/DESIGN ASSESSMENT, cont.
Most of the area north of the tennis courts is filled with a dirt track, which has a baseball diamond
laid out in its southwest section.
Just north ofthe track is the recently-relocated Artemus Ward Gate (#904). This is a sy~:nmetrical,
two-part, semi-circular masonry structure of random-laid granite block embellished with concrete
and wrought iron accents. Mounted at the center of each section is a bronze plaque in an
elaborate, high sandstone enframement topped with a broken pediment and urn. The original
wrought-iron gates are gone, but the space between the two parts of the structure provides the
official gateway to the park. On either side of the opening is a high stone gatepost post to which
is attached a narrow section of wrought-iron fencing rising to a high "swan's neck" form of wrought.
iron filigree. Each gateyost is topped with a wide, elaborate wrought-iron finial. Between each
post and the curved wal beside it is a short section of iron-picket fencing. Both the fencing and
the swan's neck ornaments are embellished with a wrought-iron "W".
There is very little landscape planting within the park. At the south end few young deciduous trees
line a curving footpath that leads up to South Street, and a few others are scattered around the
edges of the open space. A short fieldstone retaining wall parallels the line of Liberty Street a
Sh011 distance down the hill near the north end.
NOTE TO FORM #904, "ARTEMUS WARD GATE":
The park originally extended farther west, across the path of the present Granger Boulevard, with
the gates positioned just west of Windsor Street on what is today the parking lot behind the
Addison and Middleton Blocks.(MHC #s 134 and 99.) They were moved to their present location
in the early 1980's as the area was undergoing urban renewal and Granger Boulevard was being
constructed.
