Lying just steps from Weston’s geographical, educational, and communal center, the Case Estates is one of the last large tracts of undeveloped land in Weston, and the town’s number one conservation priority for the last ten years. Its location at the intersection of Wellesley, Ash, and School Streets makes it an often-admired parcel of open space. Many of us who drive, walk, or bike past this property do not realize that if not purchased by the town, the Case Estates could potentially be gone. If protected from development, the stone walls and blooming crabapple trees that line the south side of Wellesley Street can remain a critical symbol of Weston, a place where pastoral views evoke images of our town’s rural past, where stands of white pine frame open meadows, and where historic rock walls separate rhododendron groves. On this property are gardens, historic farmhouses, fertile fields and a yellow brick barn with the most up-to-date facilities of its day—all remnants of our agricultural heritage. It is a property unlike any other in Weston.
Thanks to the foresight of Marian Case, the founder and leader of Hillcrest Farm (later Hillcrest Gardens) who willed the property to Harvard University in 1944, as well as the Arnold Arboretum, which served as steward of the property for the last fifty years after her death, the area until now has been preserved. It represents many lifetimes of hard work and investment, physical labor, and love for the land. It beckons us to come walk the property, to enjoy the fruits of a century of labor and innovative visions, and to imagine what the land might become in the next 100 years.
It is up to us to save it.