Franklin Park (as a whole - ENTRY #2)

OWNERSHIP & MANAGEMENT
CONDITIONS
USE
CONTEXT
HISTORY
TIMELINE

Click here for map and orthophoto

OWNERSHIP & 
MANAGEMENT:
-- Woodlands, playing fields, ponds, golf course, maintenance yard (more than 400 acres): City of Boston Department of Parks and Recreation; golf course managed by Sterling Golf Management.
-- Shattuck Hospital (13 acres) – Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Public Health
-- Franklin Park Zoo and Peabody Circle (more than 80 acres) - Metropolitan District Commission  (MDC) and Zoo New England.
-- White Schoolboy Stadium (more than ten acres) – Boston Public Schools

Back to top

CONDITIONS:
Franklin Park is a 527-acre public park that was conceived and designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted as an integrated whole. However, today the park is often understood as a number of distinct areas. It is situated on a landscape that encompasses sweeping open areas with hills on their edges, rugged woodlands, and outcroppings of Roxbury Puddingstone. Franklin Park is surrounded by the neighborhoods of Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan. 

In 2003, distinct areas within the park include a zoo, golf course, stadium, hospital complex, homeless shelter, major road, playing fields, wooded areas laced with trails, picnic areas, tennis courts, ponds, streams, maintenance yard, parking lots, and historic ruins. The various sections of the park are managed by a range of entities, and areas such as Shattuck Hospital represent significant losses in parkland. Yet despite its fragmented nature, many elements of the park are remarkably similar in design and function to Olmsted's original plan. 

The communities around Franklin Park are discussed in detail in other database entries. Individual areas within Franklin Park are also discussed in separate database entries. See links below: 

"The Loop" in Franklin Park (original Circuit Drive)
Blue Hill Avenue (eastern edge of Franklin Park)
Cemetery Road/ Franklin Park west of Shattuck Hospital
Circuit Drive/ Jewish War Veterans Highway
El Parquecito de la Hermanidad/ Covenant Playground
Emerald Necklace
Entrances to Franklin Park (historic, current and currently blocked)
Franklin Park cross-country running course
Franklin Park Golf Course Clubhouse/ William Devine Golf Course Clubhouse
Franklin Park Golf Course Parking Lot
Franklin Park Golf Course/ The Country Park/ William Devine Golf Course
Franklin Park Maintenance Yard
Long Crouch Woods/ the Bear Dens
Morton Street (along Franklin Park and Forest Hills Cemetery)
Parking lots within Franklin Park
Peabody Circle
Perimeter of Franklin Park
Playstead; Franklin Park Stadium/ Robert White Schoolboy Stadium; Steading; Ante-Park
Scarborough Pond and Scarborough Hill (also called Scarboro Pond)
Schoolmaster Hill
Steading area of Franklin Park
The Wilderness (in Franklin Park)
Zoo New England - Franklin Park Zoo
 
Back to top

USE:
Passive uses:
Franklin Park is used for a great range of activities, but the 1991 master plan for Franklin Park shows that 80% of park usage is defined as passive (walking, jogging, picnicking, or sitting). 

The dominant, most consistent community use of the park is for walking and jogging around a circular walking path known today simply as "the loop." Frederick Law Olmsted originally designed Circuit Drive to be a loop around the park for walking or riding. Today, however, Circuit Drive cuts through the park from the Forest Hills area of Jamaica Plain to the Blue Hill Avenue area of Dorchester. The modern walking loop runs along major paved pathways, in part along Circuit Drive, and also by Ellicott Arch and Scarboro Pond. It skirts around the edge of the golf course, and runs parallel to Blue Hill Avenue until it joins again with Circuit Drive near the golf course club house. Runners and dog walkers, particularly from the Forest Hills area, use the Wilderness area of the park for walking and running, but with much less frequency. Dog walkers are a significant user group along the western edge of the park at Forest Hills in and around the Wilderness. Runners, both recreational and competitive, use the cross-country trails in the Wilderness and the Playstead area.

Active uses:
Active recreation occurs primarily in the Playstead area of the park. Sports such as baseball, softball, rugby, football, soccer, track, tennis, cross-country running, and cross-country skiing are all popular in the Playstead.

Visitors to the Franklin Park Zoo must pay up to $9.50 (adults) and $5.00 (children) to enter. The Franklin Park Golf Course is open to all who are willing to pay the relatively reasonable greens fees, but reservations must be made in advance. Boston residents pay a special low rate. Use of the George Robert White Schoolboy Stadium is limited to the Boston Public School system, summer day camp for Boston residents, and a handful of other approved uses.

Festivals:
Festivals such as the Puerto Rican festival, the Kite Festival, Dominican Republic Independence Day, and the Caribbean Carnival/ Festival have introduced crowds of people to Franklin Park who would not otherwise visit. The festivals are celebrations of Boston's rich cultural diversity that are deeply valued by many Boston residents. They have also been a source of conflict due to the crowds, traffic, and occasional violence that are associated with them.

Optimal use and geography of park use:
Attitudes vary about whether Franklin Park is used at an optimal level. Former City of Boston Parks Commissioner Justine Liff said in 2001 that Franklin Park is "in danger of being loved to death" while others, including Betsy Suregross from the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, feel that Franklin Park is far from being used to capacity and that many more people should be encouraged to use the park.

The geography of park use is complex. In 1991, according to the Franklin Park Master Plan, the highest use areas of the park were at its edges and the lowest were in the woodlands. Since that time, use of "the loop" has exploded in Franklin Park, but park use is still concentrated at playgrounds and picnic facilities along the edges of the park. Groups of abutters, particularly on the Forest Hills edges of the park, have shown localized interest in caring for the entrances and edges of the park nearest their homes.

The reasons that people do not use the park are also complex. Fear and racism prevent some residents from using the park. Others feel safe even in areas that are frequently isolated in the early morning and twilight hours. Some youth say that turf issues restrict their use of the park, while others of the same ethnic group living in the same area do not experience these limitations to their movement and park use.

The composition of park users can also vary by season. In 1987, the residents of Ward 11 on the west side of park around Sigourney, Glen and Forest Hills were more active park users in the off-season than the residents of Ward 12 and 14 along Seaver Street, Blue Hill Avenue, and American Legion Highway, while in the summer time residents to the west of the park used it more heavily (Franklin Park User Analysis)

Groups such as the Boston Public Health Commission have encouraged park usage in recent years through grants of $3,000 for walking clubs with 30-50 members and designated "walk leaders." Walking groups frequent Franklin Park, particularly groups from Mattapan, Roxbury, and Dorchester.

The Boston Parks and Recreation Department's Open Space Plan 2002-2006 calls for the development of marketing and outreach programs targeted at community groups in the surrounding neighborhood to increase awareness of the varied events and programs that exist in Franklin Park beyond the Zoo and Golf Course. The department also wants to highlight the improvements in the park's security situation and develop a brochure and other literature in Spanish, Cape Verdean, and English to help in marketing and image-building.

Back to top

CONTEXT:
The Emerald Necklace:
Franklin Park lies near the center of the city of Boston in a geographic sense, but is about four miles from downtown. Boston's topography prevented the creation of a park in the downtown area, and as a result the City adopted the idea of a chain of parks. Franklin Park is the southernmost jewel in the string of connected parks and parkways known as the Emerald Necklace. The park was not only designed to be the most important park in the Boston system, it also ranks among Frederick Law Olmsted's three masterpieces of design (the other two being Central Park in New York and Prospect Park in Brooklyn). Although originally the Emerald Necklace was conceived as an unbroken strand of green areas, today the necklace is broken in several places. One of these "broken pieces" lies along the Arborway between the Arnold Arboretum and Franklin Park.

Neighborhoods surrounding Franklin Park:
Franklin Park touches several of Boston's distinct residential neighborhoods -- Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, and Jamaica Plain. Franklin Park has had various influences on surrounding communities over time. When the park was first established it attracted development and investment. The Forest Hills neighborhood was very exclusive and expensive in the early 1900s in large part because of its proximity to Franklin Park. When a group of triple deckers were built on Glen Road, the Jamaica Plain paper called it an invasion of "...Barbarians pouring in upon the classic beauties of Rome" (von Hoffman, 1994, p110).

There are 12 parcels of abandoned private property along the perimeter of Franklin Park (located within three blocks of the park) available for sale by the Department of Neighborhood Development in 2002. Two are along the northwestern edge in Jamaica Plain, five are along Seaver Street in Roxbury, and five are along the Blue Hill Avenue/ American Legion Highway edge.

Perimeter of Franklin Park:
Major roads form almost the entire perimeter of Franklin Park, although sections of both the northeastern and southwestern edges of the park are fenced. It is virtually impossible to access Franklin Park along Morton Street, which forms the entire southwestern border of the park. The entire park boundary was designed to screen views of the city and to create the experience of a rural setting for those within.

Back to top

HISTORY:
Name:
Franklin Park was named after Benjamin Franklin. The City of Boston thought that the parks department would garner substantial funds at the time of Franklin's death for Franklin Park, but that money was never received.

Overall conceptual design of Franklin Park:
Franklin Park is an expression of Olmsted's idea that city dwellers need contact with the natural world to preserve their physical and mental well-being. Olmsted divided Franklin Park into two sections -- the Country Park and the Ante Park. The Country Park was intended to provide a beautiful country setting for passive recreation such as picnics and Sunday strolls. Olmsted viewed the Country Park as an antidote to the debilitating grind of city life. The Ante Park was to be used for active recreation and included "The Greeting," which is a linear promenade, "The Playstead" for sports and community events, and "The Overlook" for spectators. Much of the Ante Park was never built.

Olmsted wrote Notes on the Plan of Franklin Park and Other Related Matters in order to explain the concepts behind Franklin Park so they would not be misunderstood and the park would not be abused by Bostonians. He believed that if he taught people to appreciate the natural environment, Franklin Park would become a cultural institution equivalent to the Museum of Fine Arts.

Major Historic Players:
Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903)
Olmsted designed Central Park in New York City, Prospect Park in Brooklyn, South Parks in Chicago, and Grant Park in Atlanta, among many, many others.

John Charles Olmsted (1852-1920)
He was a senior partner in his step-father's firm and supervised the construction of Franklin Park.

Arthur Shurecliff (1870-1957)
An apprentice in the Olmsted firm, Shurecliff designed the original Franklin Park Zoo in 1910 and landscaped Peabody Circle in 1925, as well as the Rose Garden and the Rock Garden.

Major historical trends:
Deviation from Olmsted's design:
According to historian Alexander von Hoffman, in the 1920s Boston Park Commissioners felt increasingly justified in deviating from Olmsted's design in order to attract park visitors. They saw Franklin Park as a "container for a variety of recreational activities" (von Hoffman, 1988, p347). Deviations from Olmsted's vision included a zoo with non-native animals, golf course, rose garden, concert area, and unplanned playing fields. According to von Hoffman, these deviations were largely the result of pressure for recreational facilities that middle- and upper-middle class Bostonians exerted on the Park Commissioners. Over the past two decades, interest in preserving and restoring historic parks in Boston and other urban centers has grown.

Ethnic conflict:
Through the 1940s, most of the ethnic conflict in and around Franklin Park took place between Catholics and Jews. In 1911, the Jewish Advocate reported that Jews spending the afternoon in Franklin Park were mauled by a gang of Catholics yelling "Kill the Jews." Regular assaults continued and intensified through the 1940s, when Wallace Stegner wrote the following in an Atlantic Monthly article: "Gangs laid for Jewish boys coming out of Hecht Neighborhood House, roamed Franklin Field and Franklin Park in search of cross-lot walkers. Sometimes they appeared in cars, which pulled up beside Jewish youths to disgorge half a dozen attackers."

Although occasional alliances between blacks and Jews were made against the Catholics before the 1950s, conflict between Jews and blacks in and around the park accelerated into the 1950s and 1960s (Gamm, 1999, p227-228). By the 1960s, Franklin Park had became a conflict area between blacks and whites more generally. On June 1, 1967, when race riots exploded in nearby Grove Hall, 1,700 of the Boston Police force, which was at that time largely white and Irish Catholic, mobilized in Franklin Park to quell the violence. In the 1970s and 1980s, the police force -- like many other non-blacks -- avoided the park (R. Heath, Franklin Park: A Century's Appraisal, 1985).

Back to top

TIMELINE FOR FRANKLIN PARK

*** A Native American footpath between Boston and Plymouth runs through Franklin Park.

1823-1825 - Ralph Waldo Emerson lives here on a farm and teaches school in Roxbury.

1875 - The Park Act is passed in Massachusetts and the first park commissioners are appointed.

1879 - Frederick Law Olmsted begins work on Fenway Park in Boston.

1881 - Boston Parks Commission selects the West Roxbury site for Franklin Park and hires Olmsted to design the park. At this point, the land belongs to 34 owners.

1883 - Franklin Park open to the public (without all the land for the park formally acquired). The park has 527 acres and includes 10 miles of driveway, 19 miles of walks, 2 miles of bridle paths, and 10 entrances, including 6 for carriages.

1885 - Average visitation on a Sunday is 11,000 people with some Sundays up to
20,000.

1886 - The sheep that keep the grass on the Country Park (now the golf course) shorn are moved to Franklin Field.
- Average summer Sunday attendance is between 11,000 and 15,000 people.

1888 - Olmsted bans all sports in Franklin Park except at the Playstead, where only boys under 16 are allowed to play.

1889 - The Overlook Shelter is completed at the Playstead.

1890 - Golfers, bicyclists and baseball players all practice their sports in the Park. George Wright receives permission to set up a golf course.

1891 - Olmsted publishes his final Revised General Plan of Franklin Park.

early-1890s - Scarborough Pond is built.

1895 - A estimated 25,000 cyclists race through Franklin Park on a single day.

1897 - John Pettigrew becomes Boston Park Superintendent and begins removing rustic structures from the park and abandoning Olmsted's naturalistic planting style.

late-1800s and early-1900s - The social status of the land around Franklin Park and the size of the houses in the vicinity of the park increases.

1900 - The Parks Department takes over the wildly popular Franklin Park golf course. An estimated 40,000 people play golf at Franklin Park that year.

1910 - An ornate flower display is added to Franklin Park (this idea was explicitly condemned by Olmsted).

1911-1912 - Boston Mayor John Fitzgerald initiates the construction of a zoological garden in Franklin Park -- another departure from Olmsted's plan.

1914 - American Athletic Union holds its first track meet in Franklin Park.

1920 - Franklin Park Zoo has 2 million visitors.
- Systematic management of the woodlands ends. Overlook Shelter becomes a police sub-station.

1922 - 18-hole golf course completed.

1925 - Circuit Drive is widened for motor vehicles.

late-1930s - The separate Park Police unit for Franklin Park is disbanded. Parks Superintendent Boutelier called this the worst blow of all to the Park.

1946 - The Playstead Overlook shelter burns down.

1949 - The Playstead Stadium is constructed.
- Golf course club house is built.

1954 - The Lemuel Shattuck Hospital is built in Franklin Park. Plans are made to abandon the Bear Dens at Long Crouch Woods.

1957 - The Franklin Park Zoo is transferred from the City of Boston Parks Department to the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC).

1959 - There are 600 workers in Franklin Park.

1950s and 1960s - There is a rapid, dramatic demographic shift of the neighborhoods around Franklin Park.

1962 - Children's Zoo designed and built

June 1, 1967 - Race riots in Grove Hall; 1,700 police mobilized in Franklin Park to quell the city's race riots and other disturbances.

1967 - Plans for I-95/ the Southwest Corridor to run along the edge of Franklin Park are narrowly defeated.

1968 - First tot-lot built in Franklin Park.

1969 - There are three workers in Franklin Park.
- Roxbury activist Elma Lewis holds a press conference to announce a clean-up campaign for Franklin Park.

1960s and 1970s - Support for urban parks revives in the United States

1970 - Franklin Park Coalition established.
- The Boston Zoological Society assumes some but not all of the management duties at the zoo.

1971 - Franklin Park put on the National Register of Historic Places.

1973 - The Boston Zoological Society abandons key elements of Shurecliff's original plan for the Franklin Park Zoo.

1977 - The City describes Franklin Park as being underutilized, having poor security, and being a source of negativity from citizens (1977 Franklin Field Neighborhood Report).

1978 - Franklin Park Coalition is incorporated.

1980 - Franklin Park made into a Boston Landmark.
- Three rapes occurred on Glen Road.
- Nine holes are unusable at the golf course
- Master Plan for Franklin Park completed.
- Stone railroad causeway removed when the Elevated Railway is demolished. Franklin Park Coalition receives 4,000 feet of granite blocks and uses the stone to block vehicular access to Franklin Park.

1981 - Proposition "2 1/2," which limits municipalities' ability to generate taxes for uses such as park maintenance, is passed. Mayor Kevin White reduces the Parks Department budget by 60% to $5.5 million.
- Franklin Park Coalition hires summer work crews consisting of local youth to make improvements in the park.
- Boston Police Department study shows that crime in Franklin Park is not higher than other Boston Parks and that crimes take place in the late evenings and early mornings.
- Parks Department closes Glen Road to all traffic and puts in more stone blocks to block vehicular access.

1982 - The Playstead is blocked to vehicles. Vehicle abuse, dumping, and crime drop dramatically. Elderly residents begin to use the Sigourney Street entrance again.

1983 - Olmsted Historic Landscape Preservation Fund dedicates $1 million for each of the Massachusetts Olmsted parks.

1983-1984 - Franklin Park Coalition team clears the Playstead Overlook Shelter, which has been choked with weeds.

1984 - The Franklin Park Coalition is contracted to construct a low granite wall along Scarborough Hill Drive.
- The first state-wide Olmsted park restoration program in the nation is initiated in Massachusetts.
- Park Rangers are assigned to Franklin Park for the first time.

1985 - Franklin Park Coalition has raised $2 million for restoration projects in Franklin Park
- Most walkways have been restored.

1988 - The Franklin Park Zoo has 35,000 visitors.

1989 - The Tropical Forest Pavilion is completed at the Franklin Park Zoo.

1990 - The Franklin Park Zoo has 200,000 visitors.
- Franklin Park Zoo is accredited by the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums.

1991 - Franklin Park receives $2.2 million in trust funds and public capital for improvements.

1997 - Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) finds that the zoo could be the powerful, driving economic force behind the development of the Grove Hall area.

2001 - First among several "Pocket Stewardship" groups, comprised primarily of abutters, established by the Franklin Park Coalition.

Back to top


END OF ENTRY 1 OUT OF 2 FOR FRANKLIN PARK AS A WHOLE. 

Franklin Park (as a whole - ENTRY #2)

Back to top