Franklin Park, a partially wooded parkland in the
Jamaica Plain,
Roxbury Roxbury may refer to:
Places
;Canada
* Roxbury, Nova Scotia
* Roxbury, Prince Edward Island
;United States
* Roxbury, Connecticut
* Roxbury, Kansas
* Roxbury, Maine
* Roxbury, Boston, a municipality that was later integrated into the city of Bo ...
, and
Dorchester neighborhoods of
Boston, Massachusetts, is maintained by the City of Boston Parks and Recreation Department. It is Boston's biggest park and the site of
Franklin Park Zoo
The Franklin Park Zoo is a zoo located in Boston, Massachusetts. It is currently operated by Zoo New England, which also operates the Stone Zoo in Stoneham, Massachusetts. The zoo is located in the northeast portion of Franklin Park, Boston's ...
. It was designated a
Boston Landmark by the
Boston Landmarks Commission in August 1980.
General description
Considered a
country park when it was formed in the 19th century, Franklin Park is the largest and last component of the
Emerald Necklace created by
Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co- ...
. Although often neglected in the past, it is considered the "crown jewel" of Olmsted's work in
Greater Boston.
It is bordered primarily by Forest Hills St., Walnut Ave., Seaver St., Blue Hill Ave., Walk Hill St., and the
American Legion Highway.
Franklin Park, previously known as West Roxbury Park, was renamed in honor of Boston-born patriot
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading int ...
, who documented in his will that he wished for a portion of his estate to be given to a worthy cause. The park brings together rural scenery, a woodland preserve, and areas for active recreation and sports. Franklin Park also has of roads and of pedestrian and bridle paths to explore.
Much of Franklin Park is scenic and devoted to the general use and enjoyment of the public. Scarboro Pond and Ellicott Arch are popular sites within the park, as are the large forested areas. The park also has picnic areas, stone bridges, outcroppings of
Roxbury Puddingstone, and old stone ruins, specifically the Long Crouch Woods of Roxbury—also known as "the Bear Dens."
[Database of Greenspaces and Neighborhoods in the heart of Boston](_blank)
In March 4, 1980, the
Boston Landmarks Commission recommended that Franklin Park be designated a landmark. The park received that designation on August 26, 1980, joining two other sections of the
Emerald Necklace (
Boston Common and
Boston Public Garden). It was included as part of the
Olmsted Park System when that landscape complex was placed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
on December 8, 1971.
From the proceeds of the sale of the Winthrop Square Garage for redevelopment as
Winthrop Center, the administration of Mayor
Marty Walsh allocated $28 million for a renovation of Franklin Park, including $5 million for a maintenance endowment. An action plan for the renovation was posted for public comment in December 2022.
Zoo
Franklin Park Zoo
The Franklin Park Zoo is a zoo located in Boston, Massachusetts. It is currently operated by Zoo New England, which also operates the Stone Zoo in Stoneham, Massachusetts. The zoo is located in the northeast portion of Franklin Park, Boston's ...
is located within the park grounds. Founded in 1912, the
zoo
A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes.
The term ''zoological garden'' refers to z ...
has such exotic animals as
lions,
tiger
The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living Felidae, cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily pr ...
s,
pygmy hippos,
Masai giraffes,
budgerigars,
Amur leopards,
western lowland gorilla
The western lowland gorilla (''Gorilla gorilla gorilla'') is one of two Critically Endangered subspecies of the western gorilla (''Gorilla gorilla'') that lives in montane, primary and secondary forest and lowland swampland in central Af ...
s, and
Grevy's zebra. One of its most popular exhibit attractions, the ''Tropical Forest'' (formerly called the ''African Tropical Forest''), opened in September 1989. The zoo is the second largest zoo in
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
, after the
Southwick's Zoo
Southwick's Zoo is a , privately owned and operated, zoological park located in Mendon, Massachusetts, United States. It was opened in 1963 and has been run by members of the Southwick and Brewer families ever since.
History
The Southwick home ...
in
Mendon.
Long Crouch Woods
The Long Crouch Woods, the location of the historic "Bear Dens", is also located within the park. Once the focus of the zoo, the Bear Dens were designed and built in 1912, and were planned to have a small collection of domestic animals. The original grounds featured a grand staircase leading to a large courtyard, framed by several large iron bear cages. One of these cages featured a detailed stone sculpture of bears and the crest of the City of Boston.
Plans of expanding the Long Crouch Woods section of the zoo never came to fruition. As the grounds deteriorated, and as the Parks Department neglected many of the landscape's most basic management needs, the Bear Dens became too expensive to maintain. The exhibit area was officially closed in 1954. It was later lopped off of the zoo property permanently in 1958, when the
Metropolitan District Commission took over management of the zoo.
Efforts have been made since 1980 to make Long Crouch Woods into a nature preserve with a snack bar and theatre facility; however, plans have continued to stall. After neighbor complaints it was not well maintained or cleaned by the city, the
Franklin Park Coalition
Franklin may refer to:
People
* Franklin (given name)
* Franklin (surname)
* Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class
Places Australia
* Franklin, Tasmania, a township
* Division of Franklin, federal electoral di ...
cleared the trash out of the area in 2002, and in 2007 was awarded a grant of $36,000 for materials and professional landscaping work to restore paths in the Long Crouch Woods area of Franklin Park. The project was completed with labor from summer youth crews comprising at-risk teens from the surrounding area.
Athletic areas
Franklin Park contains the eighteen-hole
William J. Devine Memorial Golf Course
William J. Devine Memorial Golf Course, colloquially referred to as and contained within Franklin Park, is a municipal golf course in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, bordered by the neighborhoods of Dorchester and Rox ...
(the second oldest public course in the nation) as well as
tennis court
A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. The same surface can be used to play both doubles and singles matches. A variety of surfaces can be ...
s,
baseball fields, and several
basketball court
In basketball, the basketball court is the playing surface, consisting of a rectangular floor, with baskets at each end. Indoor basketball courts are almost always made of polished wood, usually maple, with -high rims on each basket. Outdoor su ...
s. The Boston Rugby Football Club (
Boston RFC Boston RFC may refer to:
* Boston RFC (England), a rugby union club from Boston, Lincolnshire
* Boston RFC (United States), a rugby union team based in Boston, Massachusetts
{{disambiguation ...
) plays their matches at the park. There are large open areas used for
lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...
and
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
. One area of the park is used for
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...
on Sunday afternoons. The park is a famed
cross country course, hosting a number of high school and collegiate meets throughout the year. Franklin Park is home to the Massachusetts All-States Meet as well as the NCAA Northeast Regional Championship every other year (alternating with Van Cortlandt Park in New York City). The park includes courses for 3000 meters, 5000 meters, 6000 meters, 8000 meters and 10000 meters. Franklin Park also won the honor of hosting the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in 1992, as a special 12.5 kilometer course was used for competition. Each course includes variants of 3 major loops, the stadium loop, the Bear Cage hill loop, and the wilderness loop. The stadium loop simply goes around the back of
White Stadium, while the Bear Cage loop climbs the fairly significant Bear Cage Hill. The wilderness loop crosses into the wooded area of the park and follows a twisting path through the trees. There are many concerns regarding continued use of the park as a racing facility, including erosion and disturbances of residents who wish to use the park for walks or peaceful bike rides. As races are hosted almost every Saturday (and a good number of Sundays) this issue will continue to be controversial.
Role in ice hockey history
Franklin Park is often cited as the location of the "first game of intercollegiate ice hockey played in the United States" on January 19, 1898.
Students from
Brown University took the train to Boston, where they commandeered a patch of a frozen pond in Franklin Park, asked pleasure skaters to move aside, and played students from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
.
The details and outcome of the game were recorded in the following day's
Boston Herald
The ''Boston Herald'' is an American daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarded eight Puli ...
: Brown 6, Harvard 0.
Playhouse
Franklin Park has an open-air public performance founded by Elma Lewis, a space known as the "Playhouse in the Park". This area has featured such renowned musicians as
Duke
Ellington, the
Billy Taylor Trio
''Billy Taylor Trio'' is an album by American jazz pianist Billy Taylor composed of tracks recorded as singles in 1953 and 1954 for the Prestige label. and the
Boston Pops.
Schoolmaster Hill
From 1823–1824, before the park was created,
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a cham ...
lived in a small cabin atop what is now named "Schoolmaster Hill", running a "School for Young Ladies" with his mother and brother. Emerson drew upon the landscape for inspiration for nature poetry and essays. Besides a plaque devoted to Emerson's memory, Schoolmaster Hill offers a spectacular view of
the Blue Hills.
Ralph Waldo Emerson: The Schoolmaster of Franklin Park (pdf format)
/ref>
References
External links
Emerald Necklace Conservancy
Zoo New England
Franklin Park Coalition
Franklin Park history & details
* https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2007661066
{{Authority control
Parks in Boston
Landmarks in Boston
Cross country running courses in Massachusetts
Rugby union stadiums in the United States
Emerald Necklace