World's End (Hingham)
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World's End is a conservation area and an adjacent neighborhood located on a peninsula in Hingham, Massachusetts. The peninsula is bordered by the Weir River to the North and East and Hingham Harbor (part of Hingham Bay, and Boston Harbor) to the West. Originally part of estate of the same name belonging to John R. Brewer, the 251 acre (1 km²) park and conservation area is today maintained by The Trustees of Reservations as part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.
The park was created in 1967 on the northern two-thirds of the peninsula, after the land failed in a bid to become the site of the United Nations Secretariat building, and later a Boston Edison nuclear power plant. The southern third of the peninsula, which is colloquially also referred to as World's End, is now an upper-middle class residential subdivision with several waterfront homes.
World's End comprises four coastal drumlins – Pine Hill, Planter's Hill, and the double drumlins of World's End proper – all connected by over four miles of walking paths that offer dramatic views of the Weir River, Hingham Harbor, and the Boston skyline. The Reservation's hills are traversed by tree-lined roads and dotted with tree groves. In between are broad grassy fields that attract butterflies and are managed to provide habitat for grassland-nesting birds.
[edit] History of World's End
John Brewer built a mansion along Martin's Lane in 1856 and, over the next thirty years, acquired most of the peninsula as well as Sarah and Langley Islands. His farming estate was vast and varied. He produced hay and crops and raised thoroughbred horses, Jersey cattle, pigs, chickens, and sheep. To support these operations, Brewer built a complex of farm buildings that included a blacksmith shop, greenhouses, a smokehouse, and homes for farmhands and their families.
In 1889, Brewer asked landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, the creator of New York City's Central Park, to design a residential subdivision for World's End. His plan included 163 house plots connected by tree-lined roads. The cart paths were cut and the trees planted, but the development never occurred.
At the time of its acquisition by The Trustees of Reservations in 1967, World's End was one of the most threatened landscapes on Massachusetts' entire coast. The peninsula had survived a 1945 proposal to construct a new United Nations Headquarters and a 1965 proposal to build a nuclear power plant.
Since its designation in 1996, World's End has been part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. Unlike most National Recreation Areas, this is administered by a partnership of national, state, and local representatives called the Boston Harbor Islands Partnership. A representative of The Trustees of Reservations serves on the 13-member partnership board that oversees the management plan for the Boston Harbor Islands national park area, and the Trustees continue to manage World's End.
