A century ago, most of this area was rural, though houses were beginning to rise there. William Van Patten owned many local acres and wanted a park in the new neighborhood, so he rode his old horse, Mattie, and let her find easy trails to the rocky hilltop above. Van Patten built a gazebo on the pinnacle and opened the park to the public in 1905. Centuries earlier, native Abenaki villagers had used the same hilltop to watch for approaching friends and enemies. The park later became a lively center of entertainment: in the 1920s city dwellers came for picnics, concerts, dancing, and bootleg liquor, and in the 1950s a roller skating rink opened and teenagers used the park for romance and unchaperoned strolls. Ethan Allen Tower, created in 1905 by local citizens proud of their growing city, honored Vermont's Revolutionary War hero on land once owned by him, though Allen never built such a Scottish-inspired lookout. Burlington's expansion along North Avenue was shaped by horse-drawn streetcars in the 1890s, which helped create the suburb, carried workers to their jobs, and brought families on Sunday excursions to the park before buses and cars replaced the trolleys.
