Roxbury High Fort

Roxbury High Fort
Roxbury High Fort
Cochituate Standpipe (built 1869)
Roxbury High Fort is located in Massachusetts
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Coordinates: 42°19′16″N 71°5′24″W / 42.32111°N 71.09°W / 42.32111; -71.09Coordinates: 42°19′16″N 71°5′24″W / 42.32111°N 71.09°W / 42.32111; -71.09
Built: 1860
Architect: Standish & Woodbury; Olmsted,Frederick Law
Architectural style: Gothic
Governing body: Local
NRHP Reference#:

73000856

[1]
Added to NRHP: April 23, 1973

Roxbury High Fort is an historic fort site on Beech Glen Street at Fort Avenue in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The site now contains a small park which is dominated by the historic 1869 Cochituate Standpipe (also known as Fort Hill Tower).

The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

History

Known as Fort Hill, the site once contained earthwork fortifications of the Continental Army during the Siege of Boston during the American Revolutionary War. At that time Roxbury was an independent town connected to Boston by a narrow neck of land. The hill offered a great vantage of the entire area.

In 1868 Roxbury was annexed to Boston.[2] In 1869, the 70-ft tall Cochituate Standpipe was built atop Fort Hill by the Cochichuate Water Company.

Eventually the water tower was abandoned with other expansions to the Boston water system. 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.[3] The area is also today known as Highland Park.

References