Great Blue Hill Weather Observatory - Milton, MA - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

On top of the largest 'bump' in the inner Boston Metropolitan Area called Great Blue Hill, in the Blue Hills Reservation managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, stands a castle-like structure with weather instruments all over the place. This structure is the Blue Hills Weather Observatory, which still conducts daily weather observations and is the home of the longest continuously kept weather observation record at one location in the country.

According to the center's web site, provided below, the observatory was started by Abbott Lawrence Rotch in 1885 as a private place to study and measure the atmosphere. At this location, many innovations were made in measuring devices, such as studying the design of kites to hoist instruments, the design of lightweight instruments to hoist, steam driven kite string winders, and even some weather balloon research. Rotch was also a fan of travel by air and was instrumental in the holding of the Harvard-Boston Aeromeet that was held at Squantum Point in Quincy, MA in 2010.

For a time, the building was affiliated with Harvard University as part of its Meteorology Department until 1971. Things were going downhill from there, until in 1981, a weather club was formed and efforts to restore the tower were underway. In 1989, the building was declared a National Historic Landmark, and has since been restored and open to the public, partly through a grant from the Metropolitan District Commission (now part of the MA Department of Conservation and Recreation).

The observatory, today, is open for tours on mostly Saturdays. They have open houses in May and October, as well. For a small donation, tours of the place are given. There is food and other items to buy such as kites, as well. The dates and times given are approximate.

Street address: P.O. Box 500 East Milton, MA United States 02186-0500 County / Borough / Parish: Norfolk Year listed: 1989 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Person, Event, Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1875-1899, 1900-1924, 1925-1949 Historic function: Education Current function: Education Privately owned?: yes Season start / Season finish: From: 02/15/2009 To: 10/15/2009 Hours of operation: From: 10:00 AM To: 4:00 PM Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Please give the date and brief account of your visit. Include any additional observations or information that you may have, particularly about the current condition of the site. Additional photos are highly encouraged, but not mandatory.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   01/17/2016 JASTA 11 visited it