More on the Center of the Known Universe

Dan from over at the mydedham.org blog ads this lovely tidbit from yet another City of Boston document:

"Mother Brook Greenway
As America’s first canal, built to divert some flow from the
Charles River to the Neponset, Mother Brook has considerable
industrial and commercial development on it. The MDC in
years past had purchased acreage at Mill Pond where River Street
meets the Stony Brook Reservation and along much of the steeply
sloping banks of Mother Brook. Thanks to Fairview Cemetery,
a Parks Department property, and the MDC Stony Brook
Reservation, there is some buffering to the north of Mill Pond.
While small in length, Mother Brook, which connects to the
Charles River in Dedham just west of Route 1, is important in
the long term. A map of metropolitan Boston will show that by
Mother Brook’s linking of the Charles to the Neponset, most of
Boston is encircled by water – to the north and west by the
Charles, to the south by the Neponset, and to the east by the
Atlantic Ocean. Water is a prime connecting “tissue” for
greenway corridor planners. The ultimate loop is this encirclement
of Boston – with the assistance of the other Charles River
communities of Dedham, Newton, and Watertown, and the
other Neponset River community, Milton. Mother Brook is
thus a key link in a potential regional loop water-based trail.
In addition to its role as a missing link in a necklace of water
around Boston, Mother Brook at Mill Pond is at a crossroads in
the MDC system. It is where Turtle Pond Parkway crosses
Mother Brook and becomes the Neponset Valley Parkway,
which connects to the Blue Hills Reservation. The recreational
facilities of the Stony Brook Reservation are immediately north
of this crossroads; heading north from Mill Pond on Turtle
Pond Parkway and Enneking Parkway through the Stony Brook
Reservation, a recreation enthusiast can connect to the Emerald
Necklace via West Roxbury Parkway and VFW Parkway to the
Arnold Arboretum. The value of this connecting node in the
emerging system of greenways in the city is highly significant,
such that Mother Brook should be an important planning focus.
Yet there has been little attention paid in recent years to
Mother Brook, in part due to the efforts in the Lower Neponset
River Reservation and the various Charles River Reservations:
old, new, and the upper reaches in Newton, Watertown, and
Waltham. The most significant activity in Mother Brook in recent years, in addition to periodic clean-ups of the river, has
been the city’s effort to create a new park at a brownfield site
along the Brook. The park, completed in 2000, is called the
Reservation Road Park. It contains an artificial turf soccer/
football field, a skateboard facility, a small parking area,
brookside paths, overlooks, and riparian banks restored with
native plantings. It has been well used since its inception,
attracting people to the water’s edge, and perhaps creating
public interest in further exploring the Brook in both directions."