Second Fireplace to Third Fireplace
As you approach the Second Fireplace, some Cutler Street houses come into view on the right. There are two picnic tables in the area, about 100 feet apart. One is badly damaged but the other is okay. From the waters edge here, you can look across to Fisherman's Island, where there is a stone shelter/fireplace. It was built in 1923.
A little past the picnic area you'll come to an "intersection." The road to the left goes to the Rustic Bridge. The road to the right soon makes a left turn. You'll also see a path that heads more-or-less to the north. The path will bring you to the open side of the Third Fireplace and the road goes past the back side. If you continue along the road, you'll come to Hazel Street which leads up to Route 140 at Dorieann's Gift Shop.
The Third Fireplace area was originally known, and occasionally still is, as Maroney's Grove. It was once a popular spot for family picnics, and I've even heard of people having anniversary parties there. The picnic area was built in 1901, and the fireplace in 1923. [My parents anniversary was the same as my aunt and uncle's - August 1. Every year we'd celebrate with a picnic in the Parklands. There would be about seven or eight adults and a dozen or so children. My father would pick different places for the picnic. I remember one being at Moroney's Grove, and one year my father borrowed a rowboat and we had our celebration at Fisherman's Island. Muriel (Henry) Tinkham, 2006] Click here for Muriel's story of growing up on a farm on Dutcher Street at the edge of the Parklands.
From time to time trees have been planted in the Parklands. The Park Department history on their website mentions the planting of 12, 000 red and white pines, (1916 - to replace American chestnuts lost to the blight)), 1,500 Scotch pines, (1923), 500 pine and spruce, (1953), and 1,000 spruce, (1954). The area still has a good deal of white pine, as can be found in much of the rest of New England, but little evidence of the others. It seems that no matter what you plant, what grows here naturally is what survives. You can still find American chestnut here and there, but they seldom get to more than twenty feet when they're killed by the blight.
I've heard more than one person ask if the Parkland fireplaces were Depression-era projects - CCC or WPA, maybe. No, no, no -- not a chance. Anything the Drapers didn't want to happen in Hopedale, didn't happen. The Republican Drapers didn't want anything to do with any Roosevelt projects.
It seems that whenever Maroney's Grove is mentioned, someone will say, "Do you know about the spring?" That seems to have been a popular attraction there. I know of a couple of nearby possibilities, but I've never been sure that I've found it. Extending from the area in front of the fireplace, going roughly toward the pond, there's a path. It crosses a brook (The spring??? Looks to me like it just comes out of a small swamp; not my idea of the pristine spring I've heard about.) and continues on for quite a distance. As you follow it, you can get a glimpse of the river (upstream from the Rustic Bridge, it is no longer a pond and it's probably even an exaggeration to call it a river) from time to time. Eventually you'll come out behind some of the businesses well up on Route 140. While the path continues for quite a distance, not long from Maroney's Grove, the Parklands territory ends and private property begins.
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