In South Boston, neighbors plan rally to save pocket park

The Archdiocese of Boston has put the lots up for sale. Community, church both contend they maintain it.

The Archdiocese of Boston has put this South Boston park up for sale. Lindsay Crudele

October 19, 2023

2 minutes to read

A group of neighbors will gather Oct. 28th to mobilize for the preservation of Sister Mary Veronica Park, an early “vest pocket park” in South Boston the Archdiocese of Boston has put up for sale.

The park is a former vacant lot the Archdiocese purchased for $640 from the City of Boston in 1955. Neighbors, city officials, and clergy dedicated the lot as a park in a 1968 ceremony.

On Friday, a group called the Committee to Save Sister Mary Veronica Park announced the 1 p.m. event and launched an online petition in support of the park, located at 190-198 W. Eighth St. Vicky Shen, a neighbor and spokesperson for the group, said she hoped the committee’s efforts would illustrate the community’s interest in continuing the park’s existing use to potential buyers. According to the Boston.com listing, all offers are due by noon on Nov. 30.

“The sale of Sister Mary Veronica Park isn’t merely a sale of property, it represents a potential severance of community ties, loss of history, loss of open space, and a negative ecological impact,” reads a letter from the group. “For 50+ years, the community has been maintaining, cleaning, shoveling and generally caring for the park sometimes with help from the city but mostly on their own.”

Shen said park maintenance by neighbors has been an organic effort, responding to issues as needed, such as someone visiting every few weeks with a leaf blower or people gathering trash.

“It was not a gift,” Archdiocese spokesperson Terry Donilan said via email. “Currently, the Archdiocese pays for tree trimming, landscaping and we have paid for site cleanup of trash, litter, etc.” According to Suffolk County Registry of Deeds records, the parcels were transferred from the city to the Archdiocese on July 14, 1955.

Donilan said the organization is marketing the property and welcomes proposal requests from interested parties, “including the City.” He said the Archdiocese does not set a price for properties it sells and would not likely share details until a purchase-and-sale agreement is in place.

Reports to the City’s 311 system corresponding to the location have included occasional drop-offs of large discarded items to the park’s corner, such as sofas and mattresses, which the city picked up, and in February and March of 2022, multiple reports were filed for lack of snow removal.

According to a brochure from the park’s dedication ceremony in 1968, Monsignor Harry M. O’Connor, pastor of St. Augustine’s Church, performed a blessing, alongside remarks by city officials, including then-Vice Mayor Edward Sullivan. More than 350 neighbors attended the ceremony, according to coverage in a November 1968 Boston Sunday Globe article, which described the land as a collective donation from the City of Boston, St. Augustine’s Church, and Melrose Nurseries. A Boston Herald Traveler article from the same week reported that the city had donated landscaping materials and trees for the park’s usage.

Last week, a trio of Boston city councilors shared a letter with Boston.com in which they vowed to oppose future development proposals on the site. The 4,675 lot is residentially zoned, according to the Boston Planning & Development Agency.