BPP Awarded Community Preservation Funding. Thank you Southie for your support!
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.
We see Barnard Place Park as a welcoming respite from the busy city in which we live. Our design includes a memorial bench, a wheelchair-accessible vegetable bed, trees, shrubs, a butterfly garden, bistro-style seating, and a bocce court to honor the history of bocce that was played on this land decades ago.
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.
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.
As we begin our exciting adventure to build 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 the abandoned 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 met several times over the course of 2019 to work on the conceptual design. It was important for us to include a memorial bench 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 will bring thoughtfully landscaped open space to promote relaxation, honor the people who were the fabric of this area for decades, and include a bocce court for the neighborhood 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 kicking off Barnard Place Park without Councilor Flynn's vision and support. We are eager to launch this project and take it from pre-construction all the way to the ribbon-cutting ceremony!
Join us in making the Barnard Place Park a reality by helping us raise the additional funds needed to construct this beautiful South Boston neighborhood public park. Please visit our Donate page for further information. Your donation is 100% tax-deductible.
Barnard Place Park welcomes Boston residents to join our nonprofit group by becoming active volunteers. Please visit our Volunteer page for opportunities.
Our very special thanks to Jennifer Kimball, Executive Director, Valeri Burns, Project Manager, Darrah Cole, Senior Horticulturist and Designer - Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy and Amanda Foran, Landscape Architect for their expertise, professionalism and dedication in working closely with us to create the original Barnard Place Park conceptual designs. COGdesign continues to be a major resource and support system for our 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!
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.
Neighborhood residents gather for the Barnard Place Park community meeting.
Pattie McCormick and neighbors listen to Evan Spencer present the Barnard Place Park project.
Christine Poff, Director of the Community Preservation addresses the crowd.
Christine Poff listens to a resident's question about the Community Preservation Act.
Representative Biele, Christine Poff and neighbors listen to a resident speak.
Horticulturist Darrah Cole shares a laugh.
BARNARD PLACE PARK - 501(c)(3) NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION
603R East Second Street, South Boston, MA
© 2019 Barnard Place Park All Rights Reserved