History of the Franklin Park Coalition

The Franklin Park Coalition started with people who wanted to make Franklin Park an asset to the neighborhoods around the park.  

In the early 1960's, urban unrest was rampant in the neighborhoods around the park.  Elma Lewis, the renowned African American arts leader in Boston, was looking for a public performance space. She wanted audiences to see some of the greatest artists of the day and offer her art students a place to show off their burgeoning talent.

Ms. Lewis looked to Franklin Park, and brought a group of young people to the Overlook ruins where they cleared weeds and built a summer stage. This was the beginning of Franklin Park's renaissance. For 12 years from July 4th to Labor Day there were performances on the Overlook stage every night of the week. The Playhouse in the Park became known for annual Duke Ellington concerts and other famous musical greats, such as the Billy Taylor Trio and the Boston Pops.

From the start, the Playhouse audiences were diverse.  Both black and white families flocked to the summer stage, from the surrounding neighborhoods and the wider Boston area. People came back to Franklin Park!

In the early 1970's, Richard Heath, a park neighbor, went further. A self-taught naturalist and community organizer, Richard, over the course of 20 years, cleaned up neglected areas of the park, removed abandoned automobiles, re-landscaped entrances, and made the park an urban oasis once again. When the elevated Orange line that ran down Washington Street was demolished, Richard had the granite blocks that held up the train placed along the park edges and roadways to keep cars from driving over the grass.  You can still see the blocks lining the park today. He raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and with a group of community activists, started the Franklin Park Coalition in 1974. Read a collection of articles on the history of the park that Richard wrote in the 1980s for the Jamaica Plain Citizen.

In the late 1980's until 1997, the Coalition became dormant. As park conditions and city funding improved, there seemed to be less need for activism.

In the late-1990’s, however, poor maintenance, lack of community involvement, and overdevelopment led a new generation of community leaders to revive the Franklin Park Coalition. With an Executive Director and three staff, the Coalition marshals the energy of hundreds of volunteers, park activists, and newcomers.  An active Board oversees the Coalition, guiding it through the Coalition's expansion and growth.  Once again, people are working to make Franklin Park an asset to the community. You can read more about the Coalition's current goals and achievements.

To learn more about how to get involved, offer your input and suggestions, and share problems you see in the park, e-mail us at mail@franklinparkcoalition.org

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