Mother's Rest

Located by the corner of Blue Hill Avenue and American Legion Highway, Mother's Rest is currently a somewhat neglected area of the park that FPC is in the process or restoring to its former quaint setting. It lies within the larger Abbottswood, covering an area roughly from Wales Street back to the woods behind the benches of Mother's Rest. Abottswood has a rich history due to its natural spring that attracted hundreds of neighbors in a daily ritual to fill their water jugs. Once the area was known as the picnic woods and there was a beautiful stone grotto around the spring designed in Olmsted's style of using natural materials. While only a few stone remnants of the grotto can be found, the spring still bubbles up to this day. Visitors to Mother's Rest will note the ruin of a stone fountain (pictured above) where the spring's water was once piped. When the spring became contaminated, city water replaced the supposedly medicinal spring water.

Community members and park users are joining FPC to bring improvements to the Wales Street Entrance and the Mother's Rest sitting area. COG, the Community Outreach Group, donated landscape design expertise. Funding from the Emerald Necklace Conservancy's Justine Liff Fund, State Street Foundation, and the City of Boston's Small Changes Program will resolve erosion problems, restore paths, and plants shrubs and trees to invite people to this beautiful spot. The first phase, a new cobblestone gutter and path maintenance, was completed this summer. To get involved contact mail@franklinparkcoalition.org or call 617-282-2881.