GRAND OPENING MAY 20, 2022 ~ 4:00 - 6:00 PM
DaysDays
HrsHours
MinsMinutes
SecsSeconds
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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
South Boston, MA
© 2019 Barnard Place Park All Rights Reserved