Blackstone Park: Our Great Green Asset – Architecture Critic Morgan
Saturday, May 29, 2021
What city ever complained about having too many parks? Are there ever enough green spaces, hiking trails, fishing spots, ice skating ponds, or places to walk your dog?
Fishing on River Drive, where flocks of ducks, swans, and geese are in residence. PHOTO: Will Morgan
The East Side of Providence seems to be destroying itself through over construction. The very things that make this part of the city so desirable are being sacrificed for a mess of pottage. Handsome older houses are demolished and replaced by shoddy McMansions or stick-framed apartment blocks shoehorned onto small city lots. The ratio of green space to hard surfaces is being tipped in favor of runoff-inhibiting tarmac.
Let us pause and consider some of the green spaces that serve as the lungs of the city, as well as act as a safety valve to offset the harshness of urban life. The Blackstone Park Conservation District is one of the great treasures of Providence; it reminds us of why we need to protect such amenities and actively support them. The "emerald necklace" of Blackstone Boulevard, a constituent part of the park, is a buffer against the greedy developers.
The last great estate along the mile-and-a-half Boulevard is up for sale. Is there anyone who believes that the Bridgham-Granoff's 3.6 acres will be bought by a philanthropist who plans to create, say, an arboretum, a research center, a retreat for painters or poets, or some sort of venture that will maintain the gardens as an oasis? Or if the land is developed, will a smart green architect create a brilliant scheme with clustered living that will actually enhance the property and make the city proud?
Farther down Blackstone Boulevard the main house at the center of the Nicholson estate was preserved, but supporting structures, such as a delightful Arts & Crafts playhouse, greenhouses, and a carriage house were razed. The first house built on the carved-up property is a million-dollar-plus bit of suburban blandness. One vainly hopes that the remaining lots carved out of the estate might be more sensitive in spirit and scale.
Blackstone Park's 45-acres of woods and meadows are remarkably overseen by both the Providence Parks Department and a volunteer non-profit organization called the Blackstone Parks Conservancy. In addition to contributing funds, educational programs, and maintenance labor, the conservancy acts as a watchdog to insure that the park is maintained, while its wildlife and flora are studied and nurtured.
Civic leaders too often come up with misguided schemes like stadiums, wider streets, or zoning-busting skyscrapers as ways to revitalize the city. Yet the Boulevard and the three sections of park along the western bank of the Seekonk River continuously offer a solution for recreation, as well as a democratic access to nature. In all seasons, dawn to dusk, the park is there for fresh air or simply soul-restoring contemplation.
On a recent walk in Blackstone Park, I spoke with a man and his grandson who were fishing for stripers. I watched two large Bernese Mountain dogs cower when approach by a rambunctious puppy. Three industrial design graduate students from RISD, two from India, the other from Albany, were setting up a participatory design project, labeled Treeggered. A tree stump had been transformed into a sculpture festooned with various sayings about the earth, the forest, and "rebuilding our relationship with the natural environment."
The park's conservancy was founded in 1979, but the park is over a century old. The Works Progress Administration built trails here in 1935-37.
Two women stopped to chat. They had just completed master’s degrees at Brown. One was from Peru, the other from Kenya. This was their first trip to Blackstone Park, and both lamented that their scientific studies had not allowed them time to explore the city. Now that they were soon to leave, they regretted not having found the park earlier, declaring it their favorite spot in Providence.
Architecture critic Morgan has taught the history of landscape architecture and was an editor of Landscape Architecture magazine.
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