Why you should experience Peters Hill at The Arnold Arboretum in Boston, Massachusetts.
Peters Hill at The Arnold Arboretum is a panoramic botanical landscape where Jamaica Plain's scientific heritage, Olmstedian landscape design, living collections, and sweeping city vistas culminate at the highest point within Boston's celebrated Arnold Arboretum.
Set along Flora Way near Walter Street and just steps from the Walter Street Burying Ground, this gently rising hill rewards visitors with expansive meadows, internationally significant tree collections, winding footpaths, seasonal flowering crabapples, and one of the finest natural overlooks in the Emerald Necklace. Broad grassy slopes transition into carefully curated groves where scientific plant collections blend seamlessly with an open summit framing the Boston skyline, Blue Hills, and surrounding neighborhoods. Rather than functioning as a traditional scenic overlook alone, Peters Hill captures the Arnold Arboretum's philosophy of integrating botanical research, public recreation, and landscape artistry within a living museum. The result is a destination defined by horticultural excellence, landscape preservation, and one of Boston's most rewarding panoramic viewpoints.
What you should know about Peters Hill at The Arnold Arboretum.
Peters Hill at The Arnold Arboretum is best known for rising 240 feet as the highest point within both the 281-acre Arnold Arboretum and Frederick Law Olmsted's Emerald Necklace, occupying a 68-acre tract acquired by Benjamin Bussey in 1837 before its incorporation into the Arboretum in 1894, completing Harvard University's expanding botanical landscape while preserving one of Boston's most remarkable natural overlooks. Originally known as Davis Hill, the landscape was later renamed for Andrew James Peters, who served as a United States Congressman before becoming Mayor of Boston from 1918 to 1922, while the hill today supports nationally important living collections of flowering crabapples, hawthorns, cherries, and other temperate woody plants that flourish within a distinctive hilltop microclimate carefully managed as part of the Arboretum's internationally respected scientific collections. The summit commands nearly uninterrupted 360-degree views across Downtown, the Blue Hills, and surrounding communities, while its slopes preserve the eighteenth-century Walter Street Burying Ground, among Boston's oldest surviving cemeteries established in 1711, illustrating the extraordinary intersection of colonial history, botanical science, and landscape architecture within a single cultural landscape. Together, with Harvard's ongoing conservation, plant exploration, and research programs, Peters Hill demonstrates how Frederick Law Olmsted's vision, Charles Sprague Sargent's botanical leadership, and more than a century of scientific stewardship have transformed Boston's highest arboretum summit into one of North America's finest examples of a living landscape devoted equally to research, preservation, and public enjoyment.
Throughout the seasons, flowering trees, native meadows, and carefully maintained collections continually reshape the experience, while gently ascending paths reveal changing perspectives across both the Arboretum and the city beyond. Every step demonstrates how landscape architecture, horticultural science, ecological stewardship, and historical preservation have combined to create one of the defining destinations within Boston's Emerald Necklace.
How to fold Peters Hill at The Arnold Arboretum into your trip.
Peters Hill at The Arnold Arboretum works as the grand finale to an exploration through Harvard's internationally renowned living museum.
Begin at the Hunnewell Visitor Center, where exhibits introduce the remarkable history and scientific mission of the Arnold Arboretum before wandering through its world-renowned botanical collections. Continue to Larz Anderson Bonsai Collection, whose internationally celebrated miniature trees showcase extraordinary horticultural artistry before ascending toward Peters Hill. Conclude at the Walter Street Burying Ground, where one of Boston's oldest colonial cemeteries provides a thoughtful historical finale linking the landscape's botanical significance with more than three centuries of local history. The progression moves naturally from botanical interpretation to living artistry before concluding through one of Boston's oldest historic sites, revealing why Peters Hill remains the defining summit experience of the Arnold Arboretum.
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