Join the Boston Preservation Alliance’s Young Advisors, in partnership with the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, Franklin Park Defenders, and historian Ethan Carr, for a walking tour of Franklin Park, Boston’s largest public park and a beloved site for community celebration, recreation, and urban respite. Ethan Carr is the author of the recent book Boston’s Franklin Park: Olmsted, Recreation, and the Modern City.

One of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted’s great country parks, Franklin Park’s creation dates to the late nineteenth century, when the City of Boston hired Olmsted to design a comprehensive park system for the residents of the growing industrial city. During the twentieth century, as the neighborhoods surrounding the park became home to large Black and immigrant communities, Boston’s city government largely abandoned Franklin Park. In the face of this official neglect, nearby residents took up the care and stewardship of the public landscape themselves, preserving it as a vital community green space.

Today, Franklin Park and its surrounding communities are presented with renewed opportunity but also face major threats, many of which echo the same official neglect and disregard that defined the twentieth century. This walking tour will explore the park’s history, its relationship to the adjacent communities of Roxbury, Dorchester, and Jamaica Plain, and the present-day challenges that threaten its continued role as a beloved community space.

Tour registration also includes admission to an informal gathering at the Haven, a nearby restaurant in Jamaica Plain, which will take place immediately following the tour’s conclusion. Light appetizers will be provided during the gathering, and a cash bar will be available.

The tour registration fee is $30 for members of the Boston Preservation Alliance and $45 for non-members. Non-members may choose to register for the tour and simultaneously become a member of the Boston Preservation Alliance for a combined fee of $80, or $60 for Young Professionals (40 years old and below).

Please register at: https://bostonpreservation.org/chatter/2025

Image Caption: A Black student rally takes places at the ruins of Olmsted’s Overlook Shelter, repurposed as the Elma Lewis Playhouse in the Park, at Franklin Park in 1968. Source: Boston Public Library