Paradise Pond, Smith College Live Cam

This camera looks down on Paradise Pond on the Smith College campus in Northampton, Massachusetts, from a building above its north shore. Two shingled boathouses stand at the water's edge in the foreground, while athletic fields line the far bank on the left.

Paradise Pond formed behind a dam on the Mill River and is said to have been named by the Swedish singer Jenny Lind. Smith College, a women's liberal arts college founded in 1871, grew up around its shores. Each winter the water is lowered so the river can flush out silt that settles in the basin.

From this height the view covers the main body of the pond, a wooded hillside along the horizon and a grassy point reaching into the water on the right. A softball diamond with batting cages is visible across the water, and the steps of the lane below the camera run along the bottom of the frame.