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    Franklin Park
    Franklin Park
    Franklin Park
    Ebook193 pages1 hour

    Franklin Park

    By Julie Arrison

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Franklin Park was meant to be the crown jewel of the Emerald Necklace, Boston s famed park system. It was also meant to be the epitome of Frederick Law Olmsted s distinguished career as the father of American landscape architecture. Its 527 acres of open space have been a salvation from urban plight and also the center of urban controversy. Today the community around the park remains strong and depends upon the work of volunteers, advocacy groups, and the City of Boston. The photographs in Franklin Park have been collected from a variety of personal collections and public archives in an effort to illustrate the park s history from its inception in the 1880s through its rebirth in the 1990s.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateJun 29, 2009
    ISBN9781439622179
    Franklin Park
    Author

    Julie Arrison

    Julie Arrison began working with the Franklin Park Coalition and at the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Park as a volunteer before starting her graduate education in Northeastern University�s public history program. Her research into the Franklin Park Bear Dens has been published as a Historic American Buildings Survey.

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    • 3/5
      Part of the Images of America series, this book is richly illustrated with photographs and stories from throughout the history of Boston's largest park. If there's one flaw it's that the photo captions don't always address what's going on in the pictures. I do appreciate the emphasis on social history that this book brings to the park, although I long to learn even more.

    Book preview

    Franklin Park - Julie Arrison

    life.

    INTRODUCTION

    In 1869, the citizens of Boston, likely after hearing about the successes of other large urban parks, requested that the City of Boston design and construct a park system. On June 7, 1876, a group of Bostonians called a public meeting at Faneuil Hall to discuss the importance of public parks. In a handbill to the citizens and taxpayers of Boston, these men highlighted the issues that were bound to harm Boston’s ever-growing population, including an increased death rate, a lack of fresh air, and the eventual scarcity of available property on which to build pleasure grounds. The result of this meeting was an increase in government action to plan for and construct a system of city parks that would be unsurpassed in usefulness and beauty.

    On November 9, 1876, the common council and the board of aldermen committed to research the feasibility of Boston’s park system. One of the aldermen was Hugh O’Brien, who would eventually become the first Irish mayor of Boston in 1884. His Roxbury residential status afforded him the prejudice to speak in favor of using the area of land then referred to as West Roxbury Park. In a speech given on May 21, 1877, O’Brien stated,

    Nature has already prepared the scenery by the great variety of trees, the beautiful lawns, and the extensive views of the surrounding country. No expensive grading would have to be done there, for that work has already been accomplished by the great landscape Architect on High. I repeat that West Roxbury Park, about the geographical center of the city, is the cheapest of all our Parks, notwithstanding its large area, and no scheme will be complete without it.

    The area known as West Roxbury Park was nestled between Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, and Roxbury. Many of the earliest settlers came to Rocksborough or Rocksberry around 1630 from Nazing, Essex County, England. The Town of Boston dispersed land in 50-acre plots for any man who came over from England at his own costs. One of the earliest owners of land in the vicinity of West Roxbury Park was Humphrey Johnson. His land was located in the area between the Wilderness and the north-facing side of Schoolmaster Hill. Other residents included Robert Williams, whose family owned about half of today’s park; Samuel Hagbourne; Increase Summer; John Piermont; John Scarborough; Lucius Manlius Sargent; and Joseph P. Ellicott. The annexation of Roxbury in 1868, Dorchester in 1870, and West Roxbury in 1874 added to the political reach of the City of Boston. There were more constituents with a variety of needs to be addressed in many different neighborhoods.

    The City of Boston hired Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of American landscape architecture, and his firm, which eventually included his sons John Charles and Frederick Law Jr. to complete the design, engineering, and construction of the Emerald Necklace—Boston’s modern park system. The area known as West Roxbury Park would be considered the crown jewel of the system. The 1881 annual report of the Boston Parks Commission stated that the area was chosen for the topographical advantages for a particular class of park purposes which nature has there provided. About 485 acres were at the city’s disposal, and additional land was purchased from occupants between 1881 and 1886 to bring the total acreage of designable areas to 527 acres.

    Olmsted and his firm worked meticulously to study the history of the land, learn about the patterns of users, and design a space that would appeal to a different class of human sensibilities and allow men a relief from the evil of artificial conditions. Olmsted was enamored with the views of the Blue Hills, the sloping valleys within the parkland, and the history that was encompassed in the 527 that were his to design. He named areas of the park for families that occupied the property or events that happened in a given area. For example, Revolutionary soldiers returning to the Boston area after the Battle of Lexington and Concord in 1775 used the Resting Place as a camp. The firm viewed parks as a refining art that could bring together all classes of people in relative harmony by providing places for both passive and active recreation.

    In the 1884 annual report, the board of the park commissioners, following the lead of Mayor O’Brien, decided that monies from the Franklin Fund, left to the City of Boston by Benjamin Franklin upon his death in 1791, would be used to clear the debt of the majority of the $500,000 in eminent domain land purchases for the park when the fund matured in 1891. The 1885 annual report stated, The park thus purchased should be called ‘Franklin Park’ in honor of the testator who has so generously endowed his native town . . . in perpetual recognition of the generosity of the great Bostonian to his native city. The courts would eventually rule that the intended use of the funds was inappropriate, and Franklin Park was never funded with money from the Franklin Fund.

    Instead the taxpayers of Boston paid not only for the construction of Franklin Park but also for the maintenance of the newly designed landscape. The park was constructed between 1885 and 1898, at a time when there were high levels of immigration into Boston by Irish, Italians, and Jews. This inexpensive immigrant labor was part of what made construction of the park only possible in the late 19th century. Taxpayers also funded the park police that would assist in ensuring public safety within the borders of the park.

    The grounds opened on May 1, 1883, and it was reported that great numbers of people visited them during the summer. Several large picnics of school-children and charitable societies took place and games of ball and lawn tennis were frequent, suitable grounds being specifically designated for those purposes. During this time, Olmsted and city engineers surveyed the land, established a field office at the old Ellicott House, and prepared to present their plans and designs to the City of Boston. In December 1884, Olmsted submitted his Report on Franklin Park to the

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