Manchester Street Park is our newest gem on the Spicket River Greenway We were pleased to celebrate the opening of the park complete with a playground, swings, a pond overlook and community garden beds.

Park Construction completed July 2009

Playground area and benches

Park construction was completed in July with very few hiccups along the way. The contractor worked hand in hand with the City management and GWL's team including the landscape architect. A ribbon cutting is scheduled for September (Date TBA). Right now the grass is growing, birds are chirping, and kids are playing. All in all-the park is settling in well on the Spicket River Greenway. Please check out the park-enjoy a picnic at one of the tables or sit in the shade at the Stevens Pond overlook. You can see images of the park at our Flickr site.

Park Construction began March 2009

The City accepted bids for the park construction on February 27. The project was awarded on March 5 to David W. White and Son, Inc a well-regarded firm that has constructed many athletic fields in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Given the fast-paced timeline we’ve laid out for the park’s construction, this work will proceed quickly and be complete in June. Unfortunately, due to cost constraints, some of the park’s elements—including the community garden beds, the mural wall, and full site lighting—will not be included in this phase of park construction. However, Groundwork Lawrence and the City are pursuing alternative sources of grant funding that we hope will enable the garden beds and the mural wall to be fully installed sometime during 2009. What you will surely see in June at the completed park, however, are two playground areas (one for 5 - 12 year olds, and one for 2 - 5 year olds), an overlook to the pond with a colorful pavilion, a great big grassy lawn with lots of trees, a portion of the Spicket River Greenway trail, dedicated parking, park signage, and space set aside and prepared for the community garden beds (which will include an active water hookup).

You can also follow progress at our blog.

Mayor Michael J. Sullivan and the City of Lawrence held 3 Community Meetings for the New Manchester Street Park - the newest edition to the Spicket River Greenway

Sept. 10 - Public meeting #1: Revisit initial designs and seek community input
Sept. 24 - Public meeting #2: Present modified design based on community input from Meeting Number 1
Oct. 8 - Public meeting #3: Final design decisions

The Manchester Street Park Site is a vacant 5+ acre brownfield, the site of now-dismantled municipal incinerator, situated along the banks of Lawrence's 2.5-mile stretch of the Spicket River at Stevens Pond, a mill pond created in the late 1800s to power the many textile mills still standing in the district today. The site was envisioned by the community in a 2006 as the capstone park along the developing Spicket River Greenway, on the edge of Lawrence's Arlington and Tower Hill neighborhoods. $500K in Massachusetts PARC funding has been secured for final design and construction, along with $150K EPA Brownfields Cleanup funding for remediation of the site. Final design development and completion of construction documents is scheduled for this fall; the project will go into construction spring of 2009.

For more information about the project either call (978) 620-3535 or email Maggie in the City's Community Development Department or call (978) 974-0770 or email Kathryn at Groundwork Lawrence.