The Oak Hill Pathway is described in a property page on this website.
The authors of this post, Todd Macalister and Dan Brody, who edited the 2026 edition of the printed Walking Trails Guide, decided that the Pathway’s page should remain on the website, but that it would not have a page in the new printed guide.
When the Board of Directors was asked to comment on the proposed assignment of pages in the new printed guide, we received two replies urging that the page for the Pathway be retained:
“You plan to delete the Oak Hill Pathway. As it exists now, I think that is fine as it is very overgrown. However, I am not sure that you are aware that the people in that neighborhood are currently starting to work to get this trail re-established and fixed up. Councilor Rick Lipof contacted the Conservators about this just this week. If this is not included in the Trail Guide, and continues to be overgrown, I think public memory of it will become lost. I guess that what I am asking is that a final decision on whether to include it or not be held up for as long as possible to see if there is a successful movement to restore this trail before making a final decision.”
“It’s certainly true that neither the City nor the neighbors seemed interested in this pathway for decades, until the neighbors recently rediscovered it as a possible tool for blocking subdivision/expansion of the Bigelow House condominiums. However, I also don’t think the Newton Conservators should even passively encourage the loss of public access to open spaces by de-listing such spaces whenever public bodies, or even the public itself, lose interest in them (temporarily, we hope). The aqueduct blockage in Waban may be another example. In that case, the current claims of private ownership seem to rest on the state’s and City’s apparent failure to notice (and therefore challenge) private deeds that simply began not mentioning the public access mentioned in previous deeds.”
We agree that it is important to retain the website page for the Pathway to retain the history and encourage maintenance efforts. However, we didn’t think the benefit of a printed page in the guidebook justified the expense of including it, for the following reasons:
The Pathway is extremely short
The length of the trail is 0.1 miles, according to Gmap Pedometer. At a leisurely pace of 2 miles per hour, a walker could reach the top in 3 minutes. For almost all our readers, the drive to the Pathway trailhead will take far longer than the walk to the top.
The view from the top is unremarkable
The description in the 2013 edition of the printed trail guide said that a walker can “take in the scenic view of the Charles River Valley and the Blue Hills.” This is an overstatement. Here’s the view to the south, towards Great Blue Hill, in March, with no leaves on the trees. In summer, the views are even more limited. More photos are in the photo gallery: https://newtonconservators.org/rl_gallery/oak-hill-pathway-gallery/
The “Pathway” is currently non-existent, and may remain so
Below is the current view of the “trailhead” on Ober Road. The green Conservation Commission sign had at some point been removed from the tree where it was once attached. The trailhead is completely blocked by vegetation in summer. Beyond the trailhead, there is no visible indication of the route along the easement. There is no “pathway.”
Having a property page on the website allows us to inform the public of the existence of the easement, and of the current status of the physical pathway. The website page now has this notice:
2026 Update: The entrance to this trail is blocked by vegetation. The reminder of the trail is unmarked and very hard to follow. However, discussions have begun on a plan to restore the path.
If the pathway is restored, we will change the website.
Further information about the site and proposed development
In 2022, the owners of the Bigelow House condominiums proposed additional development on Oak Hill. Neighbors created a website, https://saveoakhill.com/, to rally opposition to the plan. In spring 2023, the website had this notice: “We were notified by our ward 8 councilor that the Bigelow House Trustees and their developer decided NOT to move forward with their proposal.”
The website has a page with the deed that established the public access easement for the Pathway: https://saveoakhill.com/2023/03/19/bigelow-house-deed/
The deed is recorded starting at Book 14344, Page 391, of the Middlesex South Registry of Deeds. (Info on researching land deeds) The public access easement for the Pathway begins on page 407 of Book 14344.