Jamaica Pond, just minutes from BU by bike or car, covers about 68 acres, with a broad 1.5-mile paved path tracing its shore.

It’s a spur-of-the-moment day in the country, just minutes from BU by bike or car. One of the brightest jewels in Boston’s meandering park system known as the Emerald Necklace, Jamaica Pond offers enough diversions to pass a long summer day, with no crowds to battle. Stroll, row, sail, fish, picnic, or just park yourself on a bench here in the heart of one of the nation’s most diverse communities, Jamaica Plain.

First incorporated into renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace in 1892, Jamaica Pond covers about 68 acres, with a broad 1.5-mile paved path tracing its shore. In the late 1800s, many of the grand homes fronting the pond were the summer residences of wealthy Bostonians. A glacier-formed “kettle” pond, Jamaica Pond is a haven for ducks and is stocked with fish each year by the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, which offers fishing permits.

Visitors can rent sailboats ($15 per hour) and rowboats ($10 per hour; $5 with fishing permits) at the Jamaica Pond Boat House, which is administered by Courageous Sailing, a nonprofit that offers sailing and leadership programs to Boston area youth.

Free parking is available along Perkins Street on Jamaica Pond’s west side. The park closes at 11:30 p.m. The path around the pond is for pedestrians only. Swimming, wading, and alcoholic beverages are prohibited. Dogs are welcome on leashes; owners must clean up after their pets.

Susan Seligson can be reached at sueselig@bu.edu.

This article was originally published on June 28, 2010.