Kennedy Park (originally known as South Park) is a historic park located in

Fall River, Massachusetts Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The City of Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States Census, making it the tenth-largest city in the state. Located along the eastern shore of Mount H ...

. It is bounded by South Main Street, Bradford Avenue, Middle, and Bay Streets in the southern part of the city. The area of the city where the park is located was until 1862, part of

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

History

The park was originally the farm of John Durfee. The location gained national attention in December 1832, when the pregnant lifeless body of Sarah M. Cornell was found hanging from a stackpole there. Her death was later deemed to be murder. Methodist minister Ephraim K. Avery was accused of the crime, but acquitted after a sensational trial. The verdict outraged many local citizens. Sarah's body was initially buried on the Durfee farm, but moved years later to Oak Grove Cemetery when the park was being built. Built in 1868, designed by famed 19th century landscape architect

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- ...

and Calvert Vaux, the park was originally known as "South Park". It was updated in 1904 by the Olmsted Brothers. The park was renamed in 1963 following the assassination of President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

. The park provides a vast area of open space in the middle of a particularly dense portion of the city, surrounded by many

triple-decker A three-decker or triple-decker, in the United States, is a three-story ( triplex) apartment building. These buildings are typical of light-framed, wood construction, where each floor usually consists of a single apartment, and frequently, or ...

working-class tenement houses and the Catholic St. Anne's Church.

Description

The park has three sections: a flat upper section used for

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

and recreation fields, a sloping middle portion with sweeping views of

Mount Hope Bay Mount Hope Bay is a tidal estuary located at the mouth of the Taunton River on the Massachusetts and Rhode Island border. It is an arm of Narragansett Bay. The bay is named after Mount Hope (Rhode Island), Mount Hope, a small hill located on its ...

, and a lower somewhat wooded portion along the Bay. The park was added to the National Historic Register in 1983. It was restored in 2001. Kennedy Park has long been used a place for public events in the city. In September 1996, over 25,000 people gathered in the lower portion of the park to see then President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

during a campaign stop for his 1996 re-election. Each August since 1986, the park hosts the Great Holy Ghost Feast of New England, a celebration of Azorean culture which attracts over 200,000 people each year. In 2014, an "inclusion playground" opened in Kennedy Park, which features equipment accessible to children with disabilities. The park includes a partially fenced playground area with slides, a seesaw, and mini monkey bars. An empty ice skating rink provides a place for children to ride bicycles.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Fall River, Massachusetts Fall River, Massachusetts Parks in Bristol County, Massachusetts Tourist attractions in Fall River, Massachusetts 1868 establishments in Massachusetts

History

Description

See also

References