Landscape Information
This 251-acre peninsula is located fifteen miles south of Boston in Hingham and features panoramic views of the Boston skyline and Boston Harbor. Included in the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area, World’s End was an island before it was dammed and infilled by farmers in the 1880s.
Owned by Boston businessman John Brewer during the late nineteenth century, World’s End was initially a site with active farming. In 1890 Brewer hired Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. to design a subdivision on the land. The planned community was never built, but Olmsted’s design for the 163-house residential district was partially realized in the creation of tree-lined carriage roads that are currently maintained as walking paths.
World’s End has faced re-development several times since Brewer and Olmsted abandoned their plan for a residential community. In 1945 the site was a finalist for the Headquarters of the United Nations. Twenty years later, it was considered for the site of a nuclear power plant. Fearful of losing access to land, residents of Hingham facilitated the property’s purchase by The Trustees of Reservations in 1967. Since then, the Trustees have maintained the park (including the Olmsted -designed circulation system) and restored natural habitats with the goal of promoting biodiversity. World’s End now offers diverse ecological features, including a rocky shoreline, four drumlin hills, saltwater marshes, meadows, and woodlands.
