 Norumbega Park opened in June 1897 and was built by the directors of the Commonwealth Avenue Street Railway in an attempt to increase patronage and revenues on the trolley line running between Boston and Auburndale.The park's name was taken from the Norumbega Tower, a stone tower that Eben Norton Horsford had built across the river in Weston to mark the supposed Norse settlement of Norumbega.The park’s "Pavilion Restaurant" was managed by Joseph Lee, a skilled chef and former slave from South Carolina.