Bradley Palmer State Park spans 736 acres along the Ipswich River in Hamilton and Topsfield on the former estate of attorney Bradley Palmer. Its landscape preserves both older farmland and Palmer’s early-20th-century sporting estate, where he cultivated fields, built a steeplechase course, and hosted Myopia Hunt Club races. Before his death, Palmer arranged for the land to become a public place for the people of Massachusetts. The park centers on his restored mansion, now Willowdale Estate, and includes trails, meadows, forest, equestrian runs, and links to Willowdale State Forest. In the 1960s and 1970s, the estate also housed the Massachusetts Civil Defense Training Academy.

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Topsfield, Massachusetts · USA