Wakefield: Lake Quannapowitt Walking Map

Wakefield is an attractive, breezy town overlooking Lake Quannapowitt. The town feels more like a self-sustained commercial center than a typical suburb. Once a prosperous center manufacturing wicker, cane, and rattan products, Wakefield has now arranged its downtown buildings into a civic center on the banks of the lake. Several ancient restored houses reinforce the fact that Wakefield is in fact a very old community–first settled by Europeans in 1639.

The town was dramatically changed when Cyrus Wakefield moved from Boston in 1851, relocating and enlarging his phenomenally successful Wakefield Rattan Company, which popularized the use of wicker in the United States. When he offered to build the community a new town hall in 1868, the town renamed itself for him.

These days technology industries have replaced manufacturing. This walk explores the community’s ancient center and winds around lovely Lake Quannapowitt to return its beginning.

Click for “WalkBoston’s Wakefield Map” on Google Maps