A Look at the Histories of Roxbury and Franklin Park
Elma Lewis was born in Roxbury and many of the initiatives and institutions which she developed were connected to the neighborhood. Roxbury is one of the historic neighborhoods of Boston and it is home to a historically Black population.[1]
Unfortunately, Roxbury’s history has been scarred for decades by racism. For example, it was housing discrimination through redlining that contributed to the boom in the Black population of Roxbury between the 1930s and 1960s.[2] The neighborhood was also no stranger to police brutality.[3]
Further, Roxbury is also facing the ongoing threat of gentrification. According to Micah Wilson, “From the 1960s straight through to the present, the city’s neighborhood plans, if successful in attracting investment and speculation, only renewed [Roxbury] residents’ fears of displacement.”[4] The neighborhood’s borders are being squeezed by a vice of rising housing and rent prices; ballooning property taxes; and encroaching upscale developments.
Roxbury is not now, nor has it ever been, silent about its resistance. Movements like ‘Reclaim Roxbury’ have arisen to push back against gentrification with their own preservation goals.[5] When Roxbury was facing ugly instances of systemic racism in the 1960s, Elma Lewis was part of the coalition of response. On one instance, she charged her listeners with actively promoting social justice, saying “If you are living in an apartment building where a Negro cannot rent, you are aiding segregation. Or if you work for an employer who will not hire a Negro, you are aiding segregation. I'd like everybody here to ask himself, 'What do I do daily to promote the cause of justice in America."[6]
Roxbury was a central site in Elma Lewis’ life, and she contributed to its character and culture of strength and resistance to oppression.
Franklin Park
We're going to make this park a beauty spot. We're going to get the community together - blacks and whites - to get this park in shape so everyone can enjoy it. - Elma Lewis [7]
Franklin Park was the last urban park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of Central Park in New York City.[8] Franklin Park was part of the Emerald Necklace system and was the realization of a longstanding civic desire to create a regional park system in Boston.[9] The park was originally intended to provide a rural atmosphere, built outside of the downtown area of nineteenth-century Boston.[10] Originally a sprawling 527 acres, the park is now 485 acres.[11] The original park design included "a 100-acre woodland, a 200-acre meadow, a 7-acre artificial pond, a formal entranceway, and a 30-acre playing field," along with three overlooks.[12]
Indeed, the history of Franklin Park's design reflects the broader history of parks and recreation and of urban planning within the United States.[13] When Franklin Park was created at the end of the nineteenth century, there was a broad trend toward using parks as a method of preserving open spaces and nature for the health of urban residents. Later, there was a move toward increasing recreational opportunities within parks, to which Franklin Park was adapted, as well.[14] Boston's Metropolitan Park System, organized by the Metropolitan Park Commission, was instrumental in shaping Boston's urban and suburban landscape, as well as its traffic and infrastructure.[15]
By the 1960s, Franklin Park had fallen into disrepair. It was "a breeding ground for crime, vice, and vermin," and a "well-known dumping ground for industrial waste."[16] It was at the ruins of one of the original overlooks that Elma Lewis organized the first Playhouse-in-the-Park programs. Lewis was dissatisfied with the state of the park, and in 1969, she organized a community cleanup. According to the Franklin Park Coalition (established by Lewis herself), "Miss Lewis and a group of students cleared weeds from the area where Olmsted's Overlook Shelter had burned," building their stage.[17] Her efforts, dedication, and financing were successful in restoring the park in beauty and community status. Today, Franklin Park still connects the neighborhoods of Roxbury, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, and Roslindale.[18] The park's features have grown to include playgrounds, a zoo, a stadium, and even a golf course.[19] Franklin Park is an invaluable feature in the Boston landscape, and its history, from creation to today, is intimately connected with the broader history of the city and its inhabitants.
[1] Amina Atef AbdelAlim, “Gentrification in Black Boston: Gentrification in Boston through time and its effects on the African American community,” December 12, 2019, ArcGIS StoryMaps, https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/570e6808dfd54f12bfb4b46fdf729de0.
[2] Micah Wilson, “Race, Land, & Power: A Spatial History of Roxbury, MA through Displacement and Resistance,” December 16, 2019, ArcGIS StoryMaps, https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/6692b8b353a94eb3aa6b37e54581dfa7.
[3] “Negroes here Rap Arrests, Poor Schools,” Boston Globe (1960-), June 05, 1963, https://link.ezproxy.neu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/negroes-here-rap-arrests-poor-schools/docview/276197104/se-2?accountid=12826.
[4] Wilson, “Race, Land, & Power.”
[5] AbdelAlim, “Gentrification in Black Boston.”
[6] “Eloquent Rights Plea Starts: What More can be Said?”, Boston Globe (1960-), Nov 20, 1963, https://link.ezproxy.neu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/eloquent-rights-plea-starts-what-more-can-be-said/docview/276550264/se-2?accountid=12826.
[7] Gloria Negro, “Join the Cleanup Today,” Boston Globe (1960-), Jun 14, 1969, https://link.ezproxy.neu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/join-cleanup-today/docview/506154588/se-2?accountid=12826.
[8] Richard Heath, “Franklin Park, Boston’s ‘Central’ Park,” Arnoldia 48, no. 4 (Fall 1988), 32, https://www.jstor.org/stable/42954326.
[9] James C. O’Connell, “How Metropolitan Parks Shaped Greater Boston, 1893-1945,” in Remaking Boston: An Environmental History of the City and Its Surroundings, Anthony N. Penna and Conrad Edick Wright, eds. (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009) 170, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wrbm4.12.
[10] Heath, “Franklin Park,” 30.
[11] Ibid., 31; “Franklin Park,” Parks, City of Boston, accessed December 1, 2021, https://www.boston.gov/parks/franklin-park.
[12] Heath, “Franklin Park,” 31.
[13] O’Connell, “Metropolitan Parks,” 195.
[14] O’Connell, Metropolitan Parks,” 171, 176.
[15] O’Connell, “Metropolitan Parks,” 184, 188.
[16] Daniel McClure, "Brokering Culture: Elma Lewis, Cultural Politics, and Community Building in Postwar Boston," Black Women, Gender + Families 6, no. 2 (Fall 2012), 65, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/blacwomegendfami.6.2.0055.
[17] “Playhouse History,” Franklin Park Coalition – Work. Play. Engage, Franklin Park Coalition, accessed December 1, 2021, https://www.franklinparkcoalition.org/featured-events/playhouse-history/; McClure, "Brokering Culture," 66.
[18] “Franklin Park,” City of Boston.
[19] Ibid.
Image citation: Rotograph Company, Lake & bridge, Franklin Park, Boston, Mass. Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1905, photograph, https://www.loc.gov/item/2013647080.
[2] Micah Wilson, “Race, Land, & Power: A Spatial History of Roxbury, MA through Displacement and Resistance,” December 16, 2019, ArcGIS StoryMaps, https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/6692b8b353a94eb3aa6b37e54581dfa7.
[3] “Negroes here Rap Arrests, Poor Schools,” Boston Globe (1960-), June 05, 1963, https://link.ezproxy.neu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/negroes-here-rap-arrests-poor-schools/docview/276197104/se-2?accountid=12826.
[4] Wilson, “Race, Land, & Power.”
[5] AbdelAlim, “Gentrification in Black Boston.”
[6] “Eloquent Rights Plea Starts: What More can be Said?”, Boston Globe (1960-), Nov 20, 1963, https://link.ezproxy.neu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/eloquent-rights-plea-starts-what-more-can-be-said/docview/276550264/se-2?accountid=12826.
[7] Gloria Negro, “Join the Cleanup Today,” Boston Globe (1960-), Jun 14, 1969, https://link.ezproxy.neu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/join-cleanup-today/docview/506154588/se-2?accountid=12826.
[8] Richard Heath, “Franklin Park, Boston’s ‘Central’ Park,” Arnoldia 48, no. 4 (Fall 1988), 32, https://www.jstor.org/stable/42954326.
[9] James C. O’Connell, “How Metropolitan Parks Shaped Greater Boston, 1893-1945,” in Remaking Boston: An Environmental History of the City and Its Surroundings, Anthony N. Penna and Conrad Edick Wright, eds. (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009) 170, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wrbm4.12.
[10] Heath, “Franklin Park,” 30.
[11] Ibid., 31; “Franklin Park,” Parks, City of Boston, accessed December 1, 2021, https://www.boston.gov/parks/franklin-park.
[12] Heath, “Franklin Park,” 31.
[13] O’Connell, “Metropolitan Parks,” 195.
[14] O’Connell, Metropolitan Parks,” 171, 176.
[15] O’Connell, “Metropolitan Parks,” 184, 188.
[16] Daniel McClure, "Brokering Culture: Elma Lewis, Cultural Politics, and Community Building in Postwar Boston," Black Women, Gender + Families 6, no. 2 (Fall 2012), 65, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/blacwomegendfami.6.2.0055.
[17] “Playhouse History,” Franklin Park Coalition – Work. Play. Engage, Franklin Park Coalition, accessed December 1, 2021, https://www.franklinparkcoalition.org/featured-events/playhouse-history/; McClure, "Brokering Culture," 66.
[18] “Franklin Park,” City of Boston.
[19] Ibid.
Image citation: Rotograph Company, Lake & bridge, Franklin Park, Boston, Mass. Boston, Massachusetts, ca. 1905, photograph, https://www.loc.gov/item/2013647080.