Hubbard Park (Montpelier, Vermont)  Hubbard Park is a located to the north of the Vermont State House in Montpelier, Vermont. The park features approximately 7 miles of hiking and skiing trails, a soccer and ball field, picnic areas, a sledding hill, seven fireplaces, two sheltered pavilions, and a historic 54-foot high observation tower that was built between 1915-1930. The tower was listed on the Vermont State Historic Register on March 15, 1990, and along with its original parcel area, was added to the National Register of Historic Places as part of a "Boundary Increase" of the Montpelier Historic District (listed as property #562) on February 20, 2018. On August 14, 1781 Montpelier's first settler, Colonel Jacob Davis (1741-1814) from Charlton, Massachusetts, a veteran who had served in the Continental Army, obtained the charter of Montpelier which included the land that is now Hubbard Park. Davis deeded the acreage to his son Thomas, who in 1815, signed the land over to local merchants Capt. Timothy Hubbard and Erastus Hubbard. The land was eventually passed to Erastus' son, John Erastus Hubbard, as part of the entire Hubbard estate. Hubbard Park was established in 1899 with a donation of 134 acres of land, known as "Hubbard Hill", bequeathed to the City of Montpelier by John Erastus Hubbard (1847–1899) with the intent to "preserve wilderness" for future generations. Prior to the park being established much of its land had been clear-cut to be used as grazing pastures. In response to the request made in Hubbard's will, the City of Montpelier established a Park Commission to plan for the parks future and oversee its use. In 1907, Dana F. Dow was hired by the Commission to design the layout of the park. Dow honored Hubbard's request by suggesting an informal use of the land specifically mapping out roads that followed the natural surface as much as possible as well as reforestation of the area. Dow further proposed constructing a road leading hikers to the highest point of the park where he stated an observatory should be built. The road to the summit was initially constructed in 1910. During the 1920s, extensive plantings of red pines were undertaken along the hillside behind the Vermont Statehouse and below the tower site. By the 1960s, the stands of pines grew to obstruct what had previously been a clear view of the statehouse and downtown Montpelier from the tower (and vice versa).