Round Hill, Massachusetts
Round Hill is a location in Dartmouth, Massachusetts of historical significance.
The first historical description of the hill was by Gabriel Archer, who kept a record of the 1602 expedition of Bartholomew Gosnold from Falmouth, Cornwall to what was then known as Northern Virginia. On May 25, 1602 (o.s.), the vessel Concord having first entering Buzzards Bay (which the crew called Gosnolls Hope) from Vineyard Sound, they determined to make the west side of on an islet within Cuttyhunk Island their settlement. From that island Archer saw the a hill on the mainland which he called "Hap's Hill," "for that I hope much hap may be expected from it." On May 31, Captain Gosnold sailed to the mainland, anchored and came ashore. There he was welcomed by "who with all courteous kindnesse entertayned him …," presenting him with furs (thought valuable by Archer), tobacco, turtles, hemp, chains and other ornaments. The landing party explored the coast finding it to be, in the words of Archer, "the goodliest continent that ever we saw, promising more by farre than we any way did expect … ." Exploring the coast they discovered Hap's Island between two inlets. On the basis of the description, Hurd determined that what Archer called Hap's Hill was later referred to as "Round Hill."
Edward Howland Robinson Green, known as "Colonel" Ned Green, the only son of the renowned female tycoon and miser, Hetty Green, built his home on Round Hill after his mother's death in 1916 left him and his sister with a fortune of between $100 and $200 million. The mansion was designed by architect Alfred C. Bossom and completed in 1921 at a cost of $1.5 million.
In 1948, twelve years after the Colonel's death, his sister Sylvia Green, his heir, donated the entire property to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which used the 240-acre (0.97 km2) estate for educational and military purposes until 1964. MIT erected a giant antenna atop a 50,000-gallon water tank on the site. Another was erected nearby for research towards the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System. The giant dish antenna stood as a local and marine navigational landmark until the current owners of the site, the Bevelaqua family, demolished it in 2007.
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