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Adams Park – the heart of Roslindale

Posted: July 2, 2009 at 8:25 pm

It is called Roslindale’s beauty spot, this small triangular park in the heart of Roslindale. The home of community traditions such as the summer Farmers’ Market, summer evening concert series, and the annual Egg Hunt and Tree Lighting Ceremony, Adams Park is a centerpiece for the Roslindale community and the jewel of its commercial district.

The park’s footprint is tiny – only 3/4 acre – making it one of the smallest greenspaces in a neighborhood flanked with expansive open spaces. In 1965, the Parks Department approved the cutback of 22 feet from both the south and eastern corners of the park, in order to improve the traffic rotary pattern. Yet Adams Park is a much-needed haven for residents and local employees, a landmark to welcome visitors to Roslindale Village, and a symbol of the neighborhood’s history and its recent revitalization.

History
Established in 1920 when the City of Boston purchased the land, the park was named in honor of Irving William Adams, reportedly the first Massachusetts man to die in World War I. He lived at the corner of Edgemont and South Streets and attended Longfellow School. Irving W. Adams was born on December 23, 1893. Before enlisting in the Army as a young man of 23, Adams was a leather salesman. He was killed at Rambucourt, France on February 9, 1918.

The site on which the park lies was once owned by Roslindale resident Charles Wise of Amherst Street. Around the turn of the century, Mr. Wise, then a city councilor, offered the City of Boston the land for the low price of $5,000.00, after a fire nearly razed the Tafts Tavern which stood on the site. The city rejected the offer, reportedly due to Roslindale residents’ objections.

After the city refused to purchase the land, Wise redeveloped it. He rebuilt a second floor of the tavern, which served as the public library until the municipal building (at the corner of Washington Street and Ashland Avenue, now Cummins Highway) was built. He also built a row of one-story buildings along Poplar Street, and a two-story structure on South Street, which became Roslindale’s first movie theatre and public lunch room. The Parks Department tore down these buildings to clear the land when they later purchased it in 1919 for the sum of $20,000.00.

Memorials
Two war memorials are showcased in Adams Park, commemorating the Roslindale men and women who served in the United States Armed Forces.

The World War I memorial is nineteen feet high and bears the inscription “Roslindale honors its victorious sons and daughters in World War I. In the glory of their youth we shall remember them.” There is an interesting story behind the World War I monument. A house-to-house canvas for contributions was undertaken to raise the needed funds. The sculptor was to be a noted artist named Henry Albert Atkins, who designed a memorial to cost $30,000.00. A miniature display of the monument was shown in the window of Waters Candy and Ice Cream Parlor, on South Street. Since the goal was never reached, the collected funds remained dormant in the bank until 1955.

That year, local resident Fred Davis noticed that the “Old Roslindale Memorial Association” was one of the dormant accounts listed in the paper that would soon revert back to the state. He went to court to reactivate the funds and hired another man to create an affordable memorial in Atkins’ style. Mr. Gordon Carr of the Erikson Monument Co., Quincy Massachusetts designed the monument and the Jones Brothers Co., Barre, Vermont produced it in 1958, 38 years after the first monument was planned.

The large granite urn was erected in 1945, and is entitled the “Gold Star Mothers World War II Memorial.” This monument was erected by the same Fred Davis, who was the owner of Davis Monument Company on Washington St. In 1990, a line of memorial inscription commemorating the men and women who served in Vietnam and Korea was added to the World War I monument.

A third memorial, a historical tile mosaic installed in 1987, is detailed below.

Maintenance
The chief caretaker of the park for the longest period was Boston Parks Department’s employee and Roslindale resident, Thomas J. Prendergast. He maintained the park for 24 years, from the period of 1956 to 1979, when he retired. There is a tale that tells of the time when Mr. Prendergast was assigned a post other than Adams Park. The residents of Roslindale protested to the Mayor in order to have him reinstated.

The Boston Parks Commission, at the request of area residents in 1990, dedicated the curved walkway as Prendergast Walk for his outstanding stewardship.

The Edward Ingersoll Browne Fund, Townscape Institute, Boston Neighborhood Development Employment Agency, and the Roslindale Historical Society spearheaded the first of a series of improvements to the park in 1984-1986. These initial improvements included replacing the central walkway, adding brick detail and placing a mosaic and six “Louis Armstrong” style benches in the middle of the walkway.

The mosaic, entitled Star Pool, created by artist Be Allen, reflects Roslindale’s history and incorporates objects of its past. These include the metal fragments from the famous train wreck of 1887, and bottle fragments from the Taft’s Tavern, which stood on the site during most of the nineteenth century. Roslindale Village Main Street helped with the design review.

Roslindale Village Main Street, working with the Boston Parks Department and the Browne Fund, initiated further improvements in 1989-90, which included the replacement of the curved walkways and entry pillars, new landscaping, and cleaning the granite statuary.

Since 1985, the park’s annual maintenance has been provided through an innovative public-private partnership between Roslindale Village Main Street, the Boston Parks Department, and local corporate sponsors, including Bank of Boston, Bank of America and most recently, The Cooperative Bank of Roslindale. In 2010 the City of Boston’s Parks Department resumed the parks’ primary maintenance, but plans for improvements continue through RVMS and other local community groups such as Roslindale Green & Clean.

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