Barnard Place Park

GRAND OPENING MAY 20, 2022 ~ 4:00 - 6:00 PM

Barnard Place Park & Boston Community Preservation

Who We Are

Our Project

Barnard Place Park is a volunteer nonprofit organization in South Boston consisting of 16 Barnard Place residents who are building a beautiful, public park for the community to enjoy.

Our Project

We see Barnard Place Park as a welcoming respite from the busy city in which we live. Our design includes memorial benches, wheelchair-accessible raised beds, trees, shrubs, a butterfly garden, bistro-style seating, and a recreational bocce court to honor the history of bocce that was played on this land decades ago.

Our History

Our Project

Our History

The Barnard Place residents have cared for this city-owned parcel for more than 30 years. In April of 2019, we established a nonprofit organization to secure the deed to the land to revitalize it as a useable open space to share with the community.

Big Thanks to councilor Ed flynn

Barnard Place Park Kickoff!

As we look forward to the upcoming ribbon-cutting ceremony at Barnard Place Park, we want to give special thanks to Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn. Ed met with us on Barnard Place in 2018 to listen to the challenges our neighborhood faced over the years with caretaking an abandoned parcel of land and our wishes to create a safe, enjoyable open space. He informed us of a Community Meeting at the Tynan School to discuss the option of constructing a public park with Community Preservation funding. We attended the meeting and began the process of moving forward to make this dream a reality.

Barnard Place residents worked on the conceptual design with COGdesign throughout 2019. It was important for us to include two memorial benches in memory of longstanding Barnard Place residents Boston Firefighter Scott Salman & Arta Fritch, as well as honor the history of our surrounding community. We believe we have achieved a design that brings thoughtfully landscaped open space to promote relaxation, honor the people who were the fabric of this area for decades, and include a recreational bocce court to pay homage to the Italian families who lived and played bocce here many years ago. We are excited to bring recreational bocce to the park as a way for the community to have some fun and get to know one another.

It has been quite an interesting experience. We have met many wonderful people who have helped us along the way. We wouldn't be opening Barnard Place Park without Councilor Flynn's vision and support.

How Barnard Place Park will benefit the public

Our open space will provide enjoyment of nature, relaxation, a low-impact recreational experience and bring people together to engage with one another. By purchasing the land to revitalize the area, we are creating a pleasurable open space which will reassure the future preservation of this environmentally important land.

Social Benefits

Recreational bocce court contributes low-impact fun and physical well-being
Relaxation and restorative atmosphere contribute to mental well-being
Welcoming place for people with disabilities, elderly and children
Visual beauty enrichment
Provide ecological awareness and hands-on experience, via teaching/learning opportunities, to the inner city neighborhood.
Engagement in the community
Increase appreciation of natural surroundings
Contribute to an overall healthy environment

Environmental Benefits

Protect existing area vegetation
Incorporate additional native and native-compatible plants, trees and shrubs
Provide a protected, natural habitat for small animals, insects and birds
Provide a food-source center for pollinators such as bees and butterflies thereby increasing the available, natural habitat for their reproduction
Reduce toxins and improve breathable air quality by providing natural air-filtration
Reduce congestion by providing and maintaining an open, green-space

Community Benefits

Provide people of different cultures and abilities with a sense of community
Reduce alienation and loneliness
Create volunteer opportunities for community involvement
Honor the history of the neighborhood
Support a sense of pride in the community

History of the barnard Place Park Project

What is the Barnard Place Park project?
The City of Boston previously owned a 2,000 sq. ft., vacant, parcel of land on Barnard Place. In 2018, City Councilor Ed Flynn, along with Joseph Backer of the Department of Neighborhood Development and Christine Poff, Director of Community Preservation, held a community meeting at the Tynan School to discuss an opportunity to build a public park with a South Boston nonprofit residents group as a Community Preservation project.

After caring for the land for more than three decades, the Barnard Place residents were very interested in developing it into useable, open space. Over the past two years we have established a nonprofit organization, secured Community Preservation funding, purchased the City's parcel, and have begun the pre-construction work to break ground in the Spring of 2021. We are well on our way to realizing Barnard Place Park to share with the community!

COMMUNITY MEETING - SEPTEMBER 14, 2019

The Barnard Place residents hosted an on-site community meeting to discuss the Barnard Place Park project in detail. We give thanks to our special guests Christine Poff, Director, Community Preservation, State Representative David Biele, Darrah Cole, Horticulturist, Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy and Pattie McCormick, Associate Director of Development, Edgerley Family South Boston Boys & Girls Club for their support, along with the neighborhood residents who took time out of their Saturday morning to join us.

GRAND OPENING MAY 20, 2022 4:00 - 6:00 PM!