Looking west from the Thomas Sears house on Charles St. Foreground right: Charles Stearns house. Foreground left: out-housing of Charles Stearns. Far distance: Aspinwall Hill. The large mansion at the top of the hill with the tall spire was built by Clarence Esty, part of a group of Esty houses that have since been replaced by Schick Park. The spire was an observation tower equipped with a high-powered telescope that enabled detailed viewing of distant scenes. Harvard St., south of Beacon St., runs roughly left to right in the middle of the picture.

[Photograph by Thomas Warren Sears from the J. Horace McFarland Collection, Archives of American Gardens. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.]