The cities of Dover and Somersworth share shorelines around Willand Pond, a 66-acre body of fresh water, in the northeast section of Dover and southwest section of Somersworth. Around the turn of the last century, Willand Pond was the site of a popular recreation area with dance halls and early electric lights accessible by trolley car. Today it is a quiet tree-lined pond squeezed between two highly traveled state routes. The pond is stocked with trout and is surrounded by a trail that follows the northern shoreline jointly developed by both Dover and Somersworth and is open to small boats without motors.

The pond, in the Piscataqua watershed, was called Humphrey’s Pond in the late 18th century. In the early 20th century Willand Pond housed a Central Park at the end of what is now called Central Avenue. Previously it was called Burgett Park. None of the amenities of the grand park exist today, as they faded with the demise of the trolley cars that made Willand Pond quickly accessible to anyone in neighboring Dover and Somersworth.