By Katie Koenig
Franklin Park is another major green space in Boston, although perhaps less traveled by on-campus residents than the Common and the Esplanade. Where the Boston Common marks one end of the Emerald Necklace, a chain of parks across Boston designed to be traversed without ever leaving the green spaces, Franklin Park finishes the park system off at its westmost point, where it connects the neighborhoods of Roxbury, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, and Roslindale. It’s also the largest park along the Necklace at around 500 acres.
Although Frederick Olmsted, architect of many American urban spaces in the late 1800s, originally designed the park to just be a quiet green space, now it hosts sports venues and even a zoo. A Boston Landmarks Commission Study reports that the development of Franklin Park started when a citizens’ petition in the 1860s to the City Council requested they start acquiring land to officially establish city parks throughout Boston, along with the pre-owned lands of the Common.
This resulted in the Park Act, passed in 1875, which appointed park commissioners to create a plan for designing and dedicating certain city lands for parks. Within a decade, the city had secured lands for six separate parks, including what was then called West Roxbury Park, renamed in 1885 to Franklin Park. Despite low taxes and a debt limit, the city categorized its long-term loans taken to develop park lands as exempt from the debt limit, allowing the number of parks to more than triple within another decade.
Olmsted was brought on to design this and many other parks, and the final construction in Franklin Park in 1896 inaugurated the Boston Park System’s creation. Olmsted emphasized park designs that comfortably merged with the original topography, retaining a Wilderness section in Franklin Park and curving roads and paths around outcroppings.
He also maintained natural hills and other terrain, implementing rough stone and thatched architectural elements to maintain a quaint atmosphere. Little earth was relocated, and greenery and trees were maintained from the original growth during construction.
Despite its grand beginnings, by the 1980s, the park was dilapidated and mismanaged. Around the 1940s, many white residents had relocated elsewhere in Boston and Black residents and particularly Caribbean immigrants populated the abandoned area. The park degraded as the city of Boston began to neglect maintenance of both the green space and surrounding urban development. Instead, locals worked to clean, restore, and build community spaces in the park, like a small music stage for a teacher and her students.
According to the Landmarks Commission Study, by the ‘90s, grants and other government support resulted in restoration efforts. Along with five other locations along the Emerald Necklace, the city of Boston began a $32 million dollar plan to implement these changes. Some projects included more rigorous maintenance, separate parking, facilities, and zoo renovations.
Throughout the end of the ‘90s into the 2010s, more restorations have been implemented for various pathways and greenery in the park. As of 2019, another plan was in the works to address areas of contemporary disrepair.
Relatedly, in 2020, the Shattuck Hospital closed for demolition, which had originally been developed on thirteen acres of former park land. Individual citizens and certain Boston officials began pushing for it to be returned under park management. Although the city is planning to redevelop it for hospice care, park and conservation advocates are pushing to have it returned and restored under Franklin Park management.
If you’re interested in learning more details, the American Society of Landscape Architects details the entire history of the park. The Emerald Necklace Conservancy is also hosting a film premiere and discussion on the documentary “Franklin Park—Boston’s Imperiled Public Landscape.” It will take place on October 8th, and the specifics are available in the link to their website above.