This is the first of a continuing series of Profiles that paint a picture of who we are and the public lands and resources we have cared for every day and have for generations.
A Park Grows in Dorchester, Again
By Patricia Bergeron
At the intersection of Adams and Bowdoin streets in Dorchester’s Meetinghouse Hill neighborhood is a small kidney-shaped area of unkempt grass, a few trees, and a disconnected three-tier fountain dwarfed by the large basin in which it sits. The basin is the sole remnant of the Lyman Fountain, once a Victorian tourist attraction, later damaged and replaced by the smaller fountain, which was ultimately disconnected in the early 1970’s for lack of funding and, to be frank, lack of interest to keep it operating. Welcome to Coppens Square Park.
Like many neglected urban parks, Coppens Square is not much to look at. But the story of the park and its stakeholders is one of persistence. It is a story about the importance of acting locally, one landscaping plan, grant application and meeting at a time.
The idea of revitalizing the park began in 2014 with an article in the Dorchester Reporter by local activist Ed Cook. “Let’s get the fountain water flowing on Meetinghouse Hill,” Cook suggested. In 2016 Cook and other neighbors met with the Dorchester Arts Collaborative and learned that there had been an initial plan to renovate Coppens Square Park, but it was dormant — only $2,000 of a $20,000 Browne Fund grant had been used. But the meeting did generate the engine for change: The Friends of Coppens Square (FOCS) incorporated as a 501(c)3 in 2017.
FOCS got to work and started organizing public meetings, advertised in five different languages, speaking to the diverse neighborhood Meetinghouse Hill had become. FOCS spent the remaining Browne Fund money on a design by CBA Landscape Architects of Cambridge. They applied to the Browne Fund for more money, but the CBA plan was rejected as not “shovel ready.” The group applied for Community Preservation Act funds but was initially rejected there as well. In a show of resilience, FOCS applied again in 2019 for Community Preservation funds. Success. The CPA grant, for $100,000, was designated for Coppens Square Park and awarded to Boston Parks and Recreation.
“Months went by,” Cook said, describing a “frustrating process” until finally in the fall of 2019 the city hired CBA Landscape Architects to produce a shovel ready plan with complete engineering specifications. The revitalized park will feature honey locust and flowering trees, other plantings, and benches. The centerpiece will be a new classically styled fountain to replace the vestiges of the Lyman fountain.
FOCS still faces many hurdles. The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed progress, but the group hopes to re-apply to the Browne Fund, for Boston Parks and Recreation capital funds and/or more CPA money next spring to cover the majority of the $1.3 million budget. FOCS will assume responsibility for raising $100,000 to $250,000 for ongoing maintenance, of which $30,000 has been raised so far. The maintenance fund, which must be raised with private funds, will be used to create a trust. Fundraising for maintenance has taken a back seat while the project was made shovel ready. Now that project planning is complete, FOCS feels it has a “product” to sell to potential funders and is considering some fundraising ideas aimed at private donors.
Why, you might ask, exert all this effort for a tiny urban park in a corner of Boston known only to locals? Ed Cook explained with an analogy.
“Do you know about the Bread and Roses strike?” he asked. “The strikers said, ‘We want bread… something to live on, but we want roses, too.’ Coppens Square is the gateway to our neighborhood. In this neighborhood we have two of the poorest census tracks in the state. They’re poor because they are immigrants, but they are not destitute. There are many immigrant families who are working furiously to raise themselves up. This is a very vital, family-oriented neighborhood. Having a beautiful park as the gateway to the community says, ‘You’re good. You’re important.’ Coppens Square will be our roses: some beauty in the midst of our neighborhood.”
Patricia Bergeron is a member of Massachusetts Conservation Voters