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Great Heights

A surreal Boston overlook, complete with Bavarian castle

fortPhoto: Gig Harmon

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lot of history is packed onto Fort Hill; even if it wasn’t, the view of downtown Boston from Highland Park at the top is unequaled. You can find it by the water standpipe, modeled on the turret of a Bavarian castle, a surreal landmark towering over Roxbury. The tower stands on the site of Roxbury High Fort, built by Henry Knox in June 1775 to help end the British occupation of Boston. The park itself was landscaped by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1895.

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Named for the meeting house built at the top in 1873, Meeting House Hill in Roxbury once was among the city’s swankiest addresses. John “Mad Jack” Percival, who commanded the USS Constitution, owned 309 Bowdoin St., now the rectory of St. Peter’s Church, the city’s first major Roman Catholic church, and Mary Jane Safford-Blake, one of the first female gynecologists, lived at 5 Percival St.