Olmsted— and What Almost Wasn’t

While standing atop Planters Hill, the highest point at World’s End, and gazing beyond the rolling hills out toward the Boston Harbor Islands, it’s hard to imagine that this undisturbed natural setting nearly became a 163-home residential subdivision.

John Brewer, who built a mansion for his family at World’s End in 1856, proceeded to acquire most of the peninsula’s acreage over the ensuing three decades. In 1890, he sought the services of well-known landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, whose legacies include New York City’s Central Park and Boston’s Emerald Necklace Conservancy of interconnected parks. As requested, Olmsted presented a proposal to subdivide the World’s End property, but the plan never fully came to fruition.

“One story is that John Brewer never intended to build the subdivision,” says Anne SmithWhite, portfolio director of seven Trustees properties in the South Shore region, including World’s End.

A rendering of the subdivision plan Olmsted designed for World’s End hangs in SmithWhite’s Hingham office. “He had Olmsted draw up the plan and design the carriage roads and tree plantings. Brewer and his sons cut the paths and planted the trees, but they didn’t go any further with the plan.”

Two later proposals—a United Nations Headquarters in the 1940s, and a nuclear power plant in the 1960s—also never came to pass. In 1967, concerned neighbors Sam Wakeman and Tom O’Donnell spearheaded a fundraising campaign and joined forces with The Trustees to purchase the property and prevent future proposals from being considered. This summer, World’s End will open the doors to its brand-new Wakeman & O’Donnell Education Building, in their honor.