Bell Hill park is located right off from Route 9, Belmont Street, and boasts stunning lakeside vistas.

Bell Hill Pond was formerly known as Bladder Pond. It was Worcester’s first reservoir/water supply in 1845. It was purchased from the State Hospital in 1911 and redesigned in 1981.

The park itself is about 35 acres, consisting of steep topography with its south slope facing East Park. There are a series of trails through the wooded area, the East Side Trail, works its way up from East Park, through Bell Hill Park and Green Hill Park all the way over to Lake Quinsig. The climb up Bell Hill is really tough, not recommended for novice hikers.

So interestingly, Bell Hill Park is frequently referred to as Chandler Hill Park. This is similar to how East Park is referred to as Christoforo Columbo Park. Officially, Bell Hill Park and East Park are together officially Christoforo Columbo Park, which makes sense because there are no official markings designating where East Park ends and Bell Hill Park begins.

One of unique but often unknown feature of the park is the huge athletic field located out behind Bell Hill School. This decently maintained athletic field features two soccer fields. There used to be a rain shelter there, overlooking the field. This is the location from which they launch the fireworks. This field is officially called Jesse Lee Farber Recreation Area, according to the dilapidated sign at the entrance of the trail leading to the field.

The Parks Steward Summer Workers had a work site in Bell Hill Park during the summer of 2016 cleaning out a lot of the undergrowth. This park has really struggled with homeless encampments. If the undergrowth were all cleared out and some general improvements made to the walking paths – maybe even a boardwalk around parts of the pond, this would be a really amazing park.