About

The Frog Pond

The Boston Common Frog Pond is home to a summer spray and splash pool in the summer and is the outdoor winter ice skating place to be in Boston.

Managed by The Skating Club of Boston® in a public-private partnership with the City of Boston. Year-round, family-friendly activities include the summer spray pool, historic carousel, winter ice skating, professional figure-skating shows, and special events for kids, families, citizens and visitors.

Boston Common

The Boston Common was established in 1634 and is the oldest city park in the United States. Declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1987, The Boston Common is part of the Emerald Necklace of parks and parkways that extend from the Common to Franklin Park in Jamaica Plain, Roxbury and Dorchester.

The Boston Common was used as a camp by the British before the American Revolutionary War, from which they left for the Battle of Lexington and Concord, and has since been the location for public gatherings, protests, concerts and sporting events. While the original ponds on the Boston Common were used for grazing cattle, the park was transformed in the late 1800s into a public park. Swimming holes and pond skating were replaced with the spray pool in the 1970s and the ice rink in 1996. Today, the only animals you’ll see frolicking at today’s Frog Pond are squirrels!

The Boston Common is a public park managed by the Boston Parks & Recreation Department and cared for by Friends of the Public Garden, a private advocacy group that provides additional funding for maintenance and special events.