Borderland State Park#History
{{short description|State park in Massachusetts, United States}}
{{Redirect|Borderland State|the musical artist|Anjunabeats}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox park
| name = Borderland State Park
| photo = Ames Mansion Borderland.jpg
| photo_caption = Ames Mansion
| photo_alt = Mansion
| photo_width = 280
| map = USA Massachusetts#USA
| map_caption = Location in Massachusetts
| map_width = 280
| relief = 1
| label = Borderland State Park
| location = Easton and Sharon, Massachusetts, United States
| nearest_city =
| coordinates = {{coord|42.0650918|-71.1545746|format=dms|display=inline,title}}
| area = {{convert|1843|acre|abbr=on}}
| elevation = {{convert|203|ft|m|abbr=on}}{{cite gnis|612477|Leach Pond}}
| established = 1971
| free_label =
| free_data =
| administrator = Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation
| visitation_num =
| visitation_year =
| visitation_ref =
| website = {{Official website}}
| embedded =
{{Infobox NRHP
| embed = yes
| name = Borderland Historic District
| nrhp_type = hd
| nocat = yes
| image =
| caption = The creators of Borderland
| image_size = 280
| nearest_city =
| coordinates =
| locmapin =
| area =
| built = 1910
| architect = Ames, Blanche Ames; Ames, Oakes
| architecture = Late Gothic Revival, Georgian, Colonial Revival
| added = June 16, 1997
| refnum = 97000497
}}
}}
Borderland State Park is an American history and nature preserve with public recreational features located in the towns of Easton and Sharon, Massachusetts. The state park encompasses {{convert|1843|acre}} surrounding the Ames Mansion, which was built in 1910. The area was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Borderland Historic District in 1997. It is operated by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, with an appointed advisory council that participates in policy decision-making.
History
In 1906, Oakes Ames, a Harvard botanist (son of Massachusetts governor Oliver Ames and grandson of U.S. Representative Oakes Ames), and his wife Blanche Ames Ames (daughter of Mississippi governor Adelbert Ames, but not related to Oakes Ames), an artist and feminist, purchased land on the border of Sharon and Easton. There they built a mansion that includes Blanche Ames' studio, which still stands and created a nature preserve with woodland paths and roadways and man-made ponds. The family's home, a three-story, 20-room stone mansion constructed in 1910, was built largely at the direction of Blanche Ames. Her paintings still hang on the walls and much of the original furnishings are still intact. After it remained in the family for 65 years, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts acquired the Borderland estate in 1971, two years after the death of Blanche Ames, and opened it as a state park.
Activities and amenities
The park has more than {{convert|20|mi}} of wooded trails for hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding. Trails include a portion of the Bay Circuit Trail and the Quarry Loop to Moyles Quarry which supplied the facing stone for the Canton Viaduct in 1835. The park features mansion tours, a visitors center, pond fishing and canoeing, ice skating, sledding, and disc golf. Mansion tours are typically held on Sundays during the months of April through May. The mansion is typically not open to the public other than during these tours, and for special events.{{Cite web|url=http://www.friendsofborderland.org/3--floor-ames-mansion-tours.html|title=Ames Mansion Tours|website=Friends of Borderland|language=en|access-date=2021-05-31}}
Borderland is the home course for Oliver Ames High School cross country team. Until 2014, it was the site of the Hockomock League Cross Country championship race. It is also utilized by the Old Colony League for its annual cross country meet and various invitational meets on the {{convert|3.1|mi|km|adj=mid|-loop}} course, and was the site of the World Masters Flying Disc Championships in 1996.{{cite web |title=The 1996 World Masters Flying Disc Championships |url=https://www.nefahistory.com/1996-07-world-masters.html |website=The History of Flying Disc Sports in New England |language=en}}
In popular culture
The park has been used in a commercial, a documentary, and the film Mermaids. Scenes from the Martin Scorsese movie Shutter Island were shot at the stone lodge next to Leach Pond in 2008. Ames Mansion interiors were used as a filming location for Ghostbusters in 2015. A fictionalized version of the park is featured in the novels Disappearance at Devil's Rock and Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay. Interiors, particularly the library, were featured in the 2019 Rian Johnson film Knives Out as the home of mystery writer and murder victim Harlan Thrombey. Production designer David Crank stated, “The general rule was that both the inside and outside of the house needed to look like the sort of house that Harlan would describe in one of his mysteries. The moment we walked into the mansion we knew right away that it had the personality we needed.”{{Cite web|url=https://www.thewrap.com/how-knives-out-turned-three-locations-into-a-single-mansion-of-murder/|title=How 'Knives Out' turned three locations into a single mansion of murder|date=2019-11-28|website=TheWrap|language=en-US|access-date=2020-01-04}}{{Cite web|url=https://variety.com/2019/artisans/features/knives-out-house-production-designer-interview-1203419982/|title=Finding the perfect murder-mystery home for Rian Johnson's 'Knives Out'|last=Tangcay|first=Jazz|date=2019-11-30|website=Variety|language=en|access-date=2020-01-04}}
Gallery
File:Borderland P1120149.jpg
File:Borderland P1120153.jpg
File:Borderland P1120155.jpg
File:Borderland P1120158.jpg
See also
References
{{reflist|refs=
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Further reading
- Behrens, Roy R., "The Artistic and Scientific Collaboration of Blanche Ames Ames and Adelbert Ames II," Leonardo Journal 31.1 (1998): 47-54.
External links
- [https://www.mass.gov/locations/borderland-state-park Borderland State Park] Department of Conservation and Recreation
- [https://www.mass.gov/doc/borderland-state-park-trail-map/download Borderland State Park Map] Department of Conservation and Recreation
- [http://www.friendsofborderland.org/ Friends of Borderland]
{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts}}
{{Protected areas of Massachusetts}}
{{authority control}}
Category:State parks of Massachusetts
Category:Massachusetts natural resources
Category:Sports in Bristol County, Massachusetts
Category:Sports in Norfolk County, Massachusetts
Category:Historic districts in Norfolk County, Massachusetts
Category:Historic districts in Bristol County, Massachusetts
Category:Parks in Bristol County, Massachusetts
Category:Parks in Norfolk County, Massachusetts
Category:Sharon, Massachusetts
Category:Easton, Massachusetts
Category:Houses completed in 1910
Category:Historic house museums in Massachusetts
Category:National Register of Historic Places in Norfolk County, Massachusetts
Category:National Register of Historic Places in Bristol County, Massachusetts
Category:Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts