THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING
Hull park is high point for fun
Fort Revere offers families movies and more
By Amy van Aaram, Globe Correspondent | July 5, 2007
When is the last time you watched a movie with your family — outside, on a hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, your picnic blanket planted firmly on a patch of American history? Fort Revere Park, in Hull Village, lets you do just that.
Situated atop Telegraph Hill, Fort Revere is one of the highest points on Hull’s peninsula. It is anchored by the water tower, 56 feet from the ground to the observation deck, with a 360 -degree view of the Massachusetts coastline from Cape Ann to Provincetown. Even standing at the base of the tower offers a panoramic view of Boston Harbor, Brewster Islands, Boston Light, and the Boston skyline.
Unlike the Sears Tower in Chicago or New York’s Empire State Building — where one would usually pay a fee and stand in long lines to get good views — a visit to Fort Revere won’t cost the family anything. The park is open from sunrise to sunset 365 days a year, and the tower is open on summer weekend days, starting this Saturday.
The Fort Revere Park and Preservation Society was established in the early ‘ 90 s as a nonprofit organization to support the park. The state Department of Conservation and Recreation and the society work in partnership to preserve the history and maintain the site.
Matt Tobin is the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s site supervisor for the fort. A history buff, he wears many hats: groundskeeper, graffiti exterminator (Tobin notes that the fort has had its share of troublemakers ), and event programmer.
In 2001 Tobin, who had enjoyed watching outdoor movies at the Memorial Hatch Shell in Boston, made arrangements with the DCR to show the same movies at the fort.
“Most movies are second-run box office hits; all are family friendly. The movie truck pulls up in the middle of the field — families spread out their blankets and picnic baskets — and the preservation society sells drinks and snacks,” says Tobin.
“Fabulous Flicks at the Fort” begins Saturday and runs until Sept. 1. The movies begin at sundown and the titles remain a surprise until the film starts rolling. Veteran attendees know to bring blankets, chairs, a flashlight, and bug spray.
In addition to the movies, the fort also hosts concerts. On July 22 at 6 p.m., a local blues band, The Part Time Lovers, will perform in the corner amphitheater. On Sunday, Aug. 12 at 5 p.m., the reggae party band Noddaclu will perform a family show.
The use of the old military fort for family recreation is just the latest twist in Hull’s long history of reinvention.
As early as 1622, the area was inhabited by the Wampanoag tribe and operated as a trading post and fishing village. Puritans settled there in 1630, elbowing out the natives and changing the name from Nantascot to Hull in 1644.
Telegraph Hill evolved into a military outpost (first as Fort Independence and later as Fort Revere) serving the American Revolution and World War I as part of the coastal defense system.
“By 1947, the military started to decommission most of the coastal defense systems,” says Tobin. The fort remained vacant for a long time, until the town decided to formally turn it into a park. “There was a big push in ‘76, in concert with the bicentennial celebrations, for the town to restore the site,” says Tobin. That was when the amphitheaters were installed inside the batteries to accommodate the festivities being held in the park.
Today many of the concerts are held in these amphitheaters.
Hull has always been a destination spot, a summer colony, a respite from the humidity and concrete of Boston. Families have been arriving here — by carriage, steamboat, station wagon, and now hybrid — to take in the views, run their toes through the sand, and swim in the ocean.
Calvin Coolidge had a “summer White House” here, and Honey Fitz (John Francis Fitzgerald — former Boston mayor and the father of Rose Kennedy) had a house here as well, in the shadow of the fort.
It’s not difficult to see why the population swells during the summer months. Locals know there’s more to Hull than Nantasket Avenue and the throngs of beachgoers that sprawl across the sand and congest the boardwalk from May to August.
For more information: www.mass.gov/ dcr/parks/metroboston/ftrevere.com or www.ftreverepark.org. The Officers Quarter Museum, operated by the Fort Revere Park & Preservation Society, is open for special events throughout the season and available to groups for educational or family functions. Contact the park office 781-925-1777.
Amy van Aarem is a freelance writer in Hingham
