The Baker Estate

The Baker Estate or Ridge Hill Farms in Needham was an amazing amusement park created by sewing machine magnate William Emerson Baker on some 750 acres near Grove and Charles River Streets. In 1877 he shipped to Needham the Great American Restaurant building from the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial. This became the Hotel Wellesley, with 200 guest rooms, stables for 100 horses, a dining room seating 600 guests, bowling alleys and a boat house.