For lots of great pictures and personal stories, check out Sandy Ward's (whose father built the tow) website on Locust Lawn.

Thanks goes to the following NELSAP readers for sharing their memories of Locust Lawn with us:

Sandy Ward: This was a membership club designed with families in mind. MANY kids learned to ski at Locust Lawn. Many families saved lots of money by staying near home and skiing almost for free ($10/yr for whole family in  1950's, as I recall).  The income from the Club paid the taxes on the land, thereby allowing the family to keep as open space the 35-acre piece of property known as "Locust Lawn". The ski hill was just one corner of this property. 

Locust Lawn is truly lost. Rte 95 north of Boston carved away most of  the hill! Our former house sits at the top of what's left of that hill, but the higher part --with the barns and ski tows and ski trails-- is gone. My father, Nick Nichols (1912-1996), created and ran the ski tow there. In fact, he built several ski tows. Our old cars tended to get recycled into ski tows. He also made a portable ski tow engine on a toboggan that he could take anywhere. We often used it down on another slope in the woods when the main LL slope had melted out too much.

Steve Perkins: I learned to ski at a local private club with two rope tows. The hill was located originally in Danvers, MA then relocated to Topsfield, MA because of interstate 95 in the late 60's or early 70's. I am not sure when or if the club stopped operating in Topsfield. The name of the club was Locust Lawn. 

Locust Lawn was a private hill in Danvers, MA with to rope tows One electric and one powered by an old car. The hill was located directly behind the Danvers Plaza on Route One and was in the construction of I 95. The club relocated to a site off Route one in Topsfield just opposite the Nike Missile Site.

Allen Giles: One lost ski area was called "Locust Lawns Ski Club" in Danvers. My Uncle was a prime worker and skier at Locust Lawns during the 50's into the 60's. It had all rope tows, but I can remember 3 running all at once. They had night skiing and a lot of nice trails (seemed like a lot to me as a young boy).  When the State took some of the property from the Nichols family in the late 60's to complete Rt. 95, they relocated up Rt. 1 about 1 mile before the Topsfield Fair grounds. It never was real successful in this new location.

The location near the fairgrounds is were Locust Lawns moved to after the state took 90% of the Nichols family's property (to complete rt. 95) were the ski hill originally was in Danvers until the early 70s. The original location can be seen/imagined while traveling north on 95. After going over the RT.62 exit and looking left (across the highway) at the Danvers shopping plaza, a large house can be seen high up an embankment that drops off steeply down a slope to the southbound lane of 95. Immediately in back
of that house (Nichols residence) was a large old Barn. The hill, slopes, trails and tows were all bulldozed to build the road. My uncle was a "charter" member of the club and a main working force behind its success."

Does anybody else have any more information?

Last updated: Dec 3, 2015

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