Fresh Pond (Cambridge, Massachusetts)

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Fresh Pond
General plan for Fresh Pond Park, by the Olmsted Brothers landscape design firm (1897)
Location	Cambridge, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°23′N 71°9′WCoordinates: 42°23′N 71°9′W
Lake type	reservoir
Basin countries	United States
Surface area	155 acre (627,000 m²)

Fresh Pond is a reservoir and park in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 42°23′N, 71°9′W. Its grounds were designed in 1897 by the renowned Olmsted Brothers landscape design firm. Prior to its use as a reservoir, Fresh Pond ice had been harvested by Boston's "Ice King", Frederic Tudor, for shipment to tropical areas around the world.

Fresh Pond Reservation consists of a 155 acre (627,000 m²) kettle hole lake, and 162 acres (656,000 m²) of surrounding land, with a 2.25 mile (3.6 km) perimeter road popular with walkers, runners and cyclists, and a 9 hole golf course [1]. Additionally on the northern outskirts of the Fresh Pond Reservation lies a nursing home called the Neville Center. In the mid 1800s, the Pond was privately owned and home to a flourishing ice industry, for ice shipped as far as Europe, China, and India. In 1852, the Pond became the City's drinking water supply.

Nowadays, Fresh Pond is part of the overall Cambridge water system. Its water is fed to the pond via an aqueduct from the Cambridge reservoirs in Weston, Massachusetts, is purified at the Walter J. Sullivan Water Purification Facility adjacent to the Pond, then pumped upwards to Payson Park Reservoir in Belmont. From there it flows back to Cambridge by gravity, providing drinking water to residents and businesses.

Fresh Pond Reservation can be reached via the Minuteman Bikeway or MBTA 72, 74, 75, and 78 buses. It is a 15 minute walk from Alewife Station on the MBTA Red line.