Franklin Park, Boston
Encyclopedia
Franklin Park, a partially wooded 527 acres (2.1 km²) parkland in the Jamaica Plain
, Roxbury
, and Dorchester neighborhoods of Boston, Massachusetts, is maintained by the City of Boston Parks and Recreation Department. It is Boston's biggest park and the site of Franklin Park Zoo
.
when it was formed in the 19th century, Franklin Park is the largest and last component of the Emerald Necklace
created by Frederick Law Olmsted
. Although often neglected in the past, it is considered the "crown jewel" of Olmsted's work in Greater Boston
.
Named for Boston-born patriot Benjamin Franklin
, the park brings together rural scenery, a woodland preserve, and areas for active recreation and sports. Franklin Park also has six miles (10 km) of roads and fifteen miles (24 km) of pedestrian and bridle paths to explore.
Much of Franklin Park is scenic and devoted to the general use and enjoyment of the public. Scarboro Pond and Ellicott Arch are popular sites within the park, as are the large forested areas. The park also has picnic areas, stone bridges, outcroppings of Roxbury Puddingstone, and old stone ruins, specifically the Long Crouch Woods of Roxbury—also known as "the Bear Dens."
is located within the park grounds. Founded in 1912, the 72 acres (291,373.9 m²) zoo
has such exotic animals as lion
s, tiger
s, pygmy hippos, Masai giraffe
s, budgerigar
s, Amur leopard
s, western lowland gorilla
s, and Grevy's zebra
. One of its most popular exhibit attractions, the Tropical Forest (formerly called the African Tropical Forest), opened in September 1989. The zoo is the second largest zoo in New England
, after the Southwick's Zoo
in Mendon
.
Efforts have been made since 1980 to make Long Crouch Woods into a nature preserve with a snack bar and theatre facility; however, plans have continued to stall. Today, it continues to be an area used for illicit activities and illegal dumping. The Franklin Park Coalition cleared the trash out of the area in 2002, and in 2007 was awarded a grant of $36,000 for materials and professional landscaping work to restore paths in the Long Crouch Woods area of Franklin Park. The project will be completed with labor from summer youth crews comprising at-risk teens from the surrounding area.
(the second oldest public course in the nation) as well as tennis court
s, baseball field
s, and several basketball court
s. Boston RFC
play their matches at the park. There are large open areas used for lacrosse
and soccer. One area of the park is used for cricket
on Sunday afternoons. The park is a famed cross country
course, hosting a number of high school and collegiate meets throughout the year. Franklin Park is home to the Massachusetts All-States Meet as well as the NCAA Northeast Regional Championship every other year (alternating with Van Courtlandt Park in New York City). The park includes courses for 3000 meters, 5000 meters, 6000 meters, 8000 meters and 10000 meters. Franklin Park also won the honor of hosting the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in 1992, as a special 12.5 kilometer course was used for competition. Each course includes variants of 3 major loops, the stadium loop, the Bear Cage hill loop, and the wilderness loop. The stadium loop simply goes around the back of White Stadium, while the Bear Cage loop climbs the fairly significant Bear Cage Hill. The wilderness loop crosses into the wooded area of the park and follows a twisting path through the trees. There are many concerns regarding continued use of the park as a racing facility, including erosion and disturbances of residents who wish to use the park for walks or peaceful bike rides. As races are hosted almost every Saturday (and a good number of Sundays) this issue will continue to be controversial.
and the Boston Pops.
lived in a small cabin atop what is now named "Schoolmaster Hill". Emerson drew upon the landscape for inspiration for nature poetry and essays. Besides a plaque devoted to Emerson's memory, Schoolmaster Hill offers a spectacular view of the Blue Hills
.
Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
Jamaica Plain is a historic neighborhood of in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded by Boston Puritans seeking farm land to the south, it was originally part of the city of Roxbury...
, Roxbury
Roxbury, Massachusetts
Roxbury is a dissolved municipality and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was one of the first towns founded in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, and became a city in 1846 until annexed to Boston on January 5, 1868...
, and Dorchester neighborhoods of Boston, Massachusetts, is maintained by the City of Boston Parks and Recreation Department. It is Boston's biggest park and the site of Franklin Park Zoo
Franklin Park Zoo
The Franklin Park Zoo is a zoo located in Boston, Massachusetts. It is currently operated by Zoo New England, which also operates the Stone Zoo in Stoneham, Massachusetts...
.
General description
Considered a country parkCountry park
A country park is an area designated for people to visit and enjoy recreation in a countryside environment.-History:In the United Kingdom the term 'Country Park' has a special meaning. There are over 400 Country Parks in England alone . Most Country Parks were designated in the 1970s, under the...
when it was formed in the 19th century, Franklin Park is the largest and last component of the Emerald Necklace
Emerald Necklace
The Emerald Necklace consists of an chain of parks linked by parkways and waterways in Boston and Brookline, Massachusetts. It gets its name from the way the planned chain appears to hang from the "neck" of the Boston peninsula, although it was never fully constructed.-Overview:The Necklace...
created by Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...
. Although often neglected in the past, it is considered the "crown jewel" of Olmsted's work in Greater Boston
Greater Boston
Greater Boston is the area of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts surrounding the city of Boston. Due to ambiguity in usage, the size of the area referred to can be anywhere between that of the metropolitan statistical area of Boston and that of the city's combined statistical area which includes...
.
Named for Boston-born patriot Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
, the park brings together rural scenery, a woodland preserve, and areas for active recreation and sports. Franklin Park also has six miles (10 km) of roads and fifteen miles (24 km) of pedestrian and bridle paths to explore.
Much of Franklin Park is scenic and devoted to the general use and enjoyment of the public. Scarboro Pond and Ellicott Arch are popular sites within the park, as are the large forested areas. The park also has picnic areas, stone bridges, outcroppings of Roxbury Puddingstone, and old stone ruins, specifically the Long Crouch Woods of Roxbury—also known as "the Bear Dens."
Zoo
Franklin Park ZooFranklin Park Zoo
The Franklin Park Zoo is a zoo located in Boston, Massachusetts. It is currently operated by Zoo New England, which also operates the Stone Zoo in Stoneham, Massachusetts...
is located within the park grounds. Founded in 1912, the 72 acres (291,373.9 m²) zoo
Zoo
A zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....
has such exotic animals as lion
Lion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
s, tiger
Tiger
The tiger is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to and weighing up to . Their most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with lighter underparts...
s, pygmy hippos, Masai giraffe
Masai Giraffe
The Masai Giraffe or Maasai Giraffe, also known as the Kilimanjaro Giraffe is the largest subspecies of giraffe and the tallest land mammal. It is found in Kenya and Tanzania.-Description:...
s, budgerigar
Budgerigar
The Budgerigar , also known as Common Pet Parakeet or Shell Parakeet informally nicknamed the budgie, is a small, long-tailed, seed-eating parrot, and the only species in the Australian genus Melopsittacus...
s, Amur leopard
Amur Leopard
The Amur leopard , also known as the Far Eastern leopard, Korean leopard, and Manchurian leopard is one of nine recognised subspecies of leopard. It is a wild feline predator native to the mountainous areas of the Russian Far East. It used to inhabit the forests of Korea and China, but it has...
s, western lowland gorilla
Western Lowland Gorilla
The western lowland gorilla is a subspecies of the western gorilla that lives in montane, primary, and secondary forests and lowland swamps in Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. It is the gorilla usually found in zoos...
s, and Grevy's zebra
Grevy's Zebra
The Grévy's zebra , also known as the Imperial zebra, is the largest extant wild equid and one of three species of zebra, the other two being the plains zebra and the mountain zebra. Named after Jules Grévy, it is the sole extant member of the subgenus Dolichohippus. The Grévy's zebra is found in...
. One of its most popular exhibit attractions, the Tropical Forest (formerly called the African Tropical Forest), opened in September 1989. The zoo is the second largest zoo in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, after the Southwick's Zoo
Southwick's Zoo
Southwick's Zoo is a , privately-owned and operated zoological park located in Mendon, Massachusetts, USA. It was opened in 1963, and remains family operated to date.-History:...
in Mendon
Mendon, Massachusetts
Mendon is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,839 at the 2010 census.Mendon is very historic and is now part of the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor, the oldest industrialized region in the United States.- Early history :The Nipmuc people...
.
Long Crouch Woods
The Long Crouch Woods, the location of the historic "Bear Dens", is also located within the park. Once the focus of the zoo, the Bear Dens were designed and built in 1912, and were planned to have a small collection of domestic animals. The original grounds featured a grand staircase leading to a large courtyard, framed by several large iron bear cages. One of these cages featured a detailed stone sculpture of bears and the crest of the City of Boston. Plans of expanding the Long Crouch Woods section of the zoo never came to fruition. As the grounds deteriorated, and as the Parks Department neglected many of the landscape's most basic management needs, the Bear Dens became too expensive to maintain. The exhibit area was officially closed in 1954. It was later lobbed off of the zoo property permanently in 1958, when the Metropolitan District Commission took over management of the zoo.Efforts have been made since 1980 to make Long Crouch Woods into a nature preserve with a snack bar and theatre facility; however, plans have continued to stall. Today, it continues to be an area used for illicit activities and illegal dumping. The Franklin Park Coalition cleared the trash out of the area in 2002, and in 2007 was awarded a grant of $36,000 for materials and professional landscaping work to restore paths in the Long Crouch Woods area of Franklin Park. The project will be completed with labor from summer youth crews comprising at-risk teens from the surrounding area.
Athletic areas
Franklin Park contains the eighteen-hole William J. Devine golf courseGolf course
A golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...
(the second oldest public course in the nation) as well as tennis court
Tennis court
A tennis court is where the game of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the center. The same surface can be used to play both doubles and singles.-Dimensions:...
s, baseball field
Baseball field
A baseball field, also called a ball field or a baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The terms "baseball field" and "ball field" are also often used as synonyms for ballpark.-Specifications:...
s, and several basketball court
Basketball court
In basketball, the basketball court is the playing surface, consisting of a rectangular floor with tiles at either end. In professional or organized basketball, especially when played indoors, it is usually made out of a wood, often maple, and highly polished...
s. Boston RFC
Boston RFC
Boston Rugby Football Club is a rugby union team based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The club competes in, and is governed by, the New England Rugby Football Union , the Northeast Rugby Union , and USA Rugby....
play their matches at the park. There are large open areas used for lacrosse
Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...
and soccer. One area of the park is used for cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
on Sunday afternoons. The park is a famed cross country
Cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...
course, hosting a number of high school and collegiate meets throughout the year. Franklin Park is home to the Massachusetts All-States Meet as well as the NCAA Northeast Regional Championship every other year (alternating with Van Courtlandt Park in New York City). The park includes courses for 3000 meters, 5000 meters, 6000 meters, 8000 meters and 10000 meters. Franklin Park also won the honor of hosting the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in 1992, as a special 12.5 kilometer course was used for competition. Each course includes variants of 3 major loops, the stadium loop, the Bear Cage hill loop, and the wilderness loop. The stadium loop simply goes around the back of White Stadium, while the Bear Cage loop climbs the fairly significant Bear Cage Hill. The wilderness loop crosses into the wooded area of the park and follows a twisting path through the trees. There are many concerns regarding continued use of the park as a racing facility, including erosion and disturbances of residents who wish to use the park for walks or peaceful bike rides. As races are hosted almost every Saturday (and a good number of Sundays) this issue will continue to be controversial.
Playhouse
Franklin Park has an open-air public performance space known as the "Playhouse in the Park". This area has featured such renowned musicians as the Billy Taylor TrioBilly Taylor
Billy Taylor was an American jazz pianist, composer, broadcaster and educator. He was the Robert L. Jones Distinguished Professor of Music at East Carolina University in Greenville, and since 1994, he was the artistic director for jazz at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in...
and the Boston Pops.
Schoolmaster Hill
Before the park was created, an unhappy local teacher named Ralph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
lived in a small cabin atop what is now named "Schoolmaster Hill". Emerson drew upon the landscape for inspiration for nature poetry and essays. Besides a plaque devoted to Emerson's memory, Schoolmaster Hill offers a spectacular view of the Blue Hills
Blue Hills Reservation
Blue Hills Reservation is a state park in Norfolk County, Massachusetts. Managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, it extends into Milton, Quincy, Braintree, Canton, Randolph, and Dedham south of Boston.-Description:...
.
External links
- Emerald Necklace Conservancy
- Zoo New England
- Franklin Park Coalition
- Franklin Park history & details
- http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2007661066