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The Town of Belmont Massachusetts
is a pleasant, residential suburb which has unexpectedly achieved international
notoriety as the childhood home of the bride of the Crown Prince of Japan.
Residents report polite but persistent Japanese tourists knocking on likely
doors hoping to discover the Princess's former house, and international
tour guides persist in planning tours of the affluent community.
Before the Prince found his Cinderella,
Belmont was a quiet community on the western suburban corridor of Boston,
situated on the divide between the watersheds of the Charles and the Mystic
Rivers. The town was largely agricultural until the early 19th century
when the turnpike and railroad linked the area to Boston, stimulating the
creation of several large suburban estates.
Although there were extensive market
gardens in Belmont, the town underwent rapid subdivision development when
trolley routes connected it directly to Boston. A Belmont farmer was the
first to import and breed Holstein cows, and historians note that the conservatories
on an estate in Belmont sparked the first use of hothouses to grow fruit
and vegetables commercially. This was done so successfully that huge Belmont
market gardens under glass produced enough fruit to make the town first
in the country in the value of its fruit products and second in the country
for vegetables during some years in the 19th century.
Belmont Massachusetts is located
in Eastern Massachusetts, bordered by Arlington on the north, Cambridge
on the east, Watertown on the south, Waltham on the west, and Lexington
on the northwest. Belmont is 7 miles northwest of Boston. |