Photo: The Pine Allée in Belmont’s Lone Tree Hill.

You have probably admired them without knowing it had a name.

Walking between a line of trees or shrubs along each side of a lane, an allée is a landscape feature first formally used in French gardens and estates to emphasize the “coming to,” or arrival to a specific point of interest.

The best-known example in these parts is the Grand Allée on the Crane Estate at Castle Hill in Ipswich. Finished a century ago this year, the half-mile-long, 100-foot-wide stretch of turf, bordered by two rows of trees, is a spectacular example of that effect. 

But you don’t have to take a trip to the North Shore to see one around Belmont, there’s one already here.

The Pine Allée, running adjacent to upper Concord Avenue near the Belmont Hill Club on the Lone Tree Hill Conservation Land, is one of the signature landscape features of the newest open space in Belmont.  

But like so much open land in Belmont, there is always a need for funds to maintain this historical landmark.

Earlier this month, Belmont Board of Selectmen accepted a $150,000 gift from the Judith K Record Memorial Conservation Fund to begin the much-needed work on the allée. 

Kit Dreier, chair of the Record Fund, told the board the fund’s trustees were pleased that the funds will be used to hire an arbor care firm to undertake and oversee the recommended work, much of it to be performed during the winter when the ground is frozen so not to damage the landscape.

“We hope that the measures to protect the Allée’s health and to assure its long-term safety will extend its life well into the future,” said Dreier. 

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