Flâneur Club - April - Touch Grass

The birds are chirping, the weather is nice, the sun is setting after I get home from work; it must be spring! In the spirit of Spring we are going outside this month. April's theme is "New Park!". Our mission:

Go to a park you haven't been to before, spend 15 minutes on a bench and really take it in. Then go to some local cafe or something and get a snack. Learn about why the park is there, what kinds of things the local community does, really just have a nice sunny afternoon and write about it. But be sure to learn some facts!

I try to be honest when completing these prompts, so a new park is pretty tough. There are a lot of parks in the Boston metro, but I have visited a lot of the big ones before! Unluckily for me, one of the parks I wanted to explore I wrote about last month. If only I could see the future!

Luckily for me, and you dear reader, I did find a park. And it turned out to be a pretty cool palimpsest too. So is this the March prompt or the April prompt? Maybe both are both. But let's dive into the history of another park, this time with nicer weather.

My favorite nature feature of Boston and Cambridge is the parks alongside the Charles River. I often go for runs, bike rides, walks, picnics, all sorts of outdoor things along these trails. I love to set up blankets or hammocks in the shade of the trees by the river's shores. That said, I have a big bias towards the downtown parts of the river. I often turn around at John Week's Bridge near Harvard, a pedestrian footbridge that often features nice views of rowers practicing.

I had assumed that although the trail continues North, the parks alongside the river would start to thin out. Bad assumption. If we peek at the map again there is a big green spot on the Boston side of the river right around the bend. This is Herter Park and it is our destination for this month's journey.

We started off the journey on the paths I always tread, riding a bike along the Cambridge side of the Charles River. I love these trails. As we crossed the footbridge we turned right instead of left. A new adventure! I had never ridden up here before.

We did this ride by BlueBike. The shared micromobility was great for this adventure. We could drop off the bikes and not worry about going back to the same spot to unlock them to get home. The one way-ness of bike shares can be really helpful.

Herter Park, like Magazine Beach last month, was built atop the previously marshy banks of the Charles River. The park is named after Christian Herter, former Governor of Massachusetts and Secretary of State for part of the Eisenhower administration. A garden in the park serves as a memorial for its namesake.

The park is home to your classic park activities. There is a community garden, plenty of walking trails, and nice spots to sit by the water. We rested on the little boardwalk for sometime and watched the geese and rowers. Herter park serves as the finish line of the Charles Regatta, the biggest 3 day rowing regatta in the world. That feels a little overly specific as an honorific to me...

While walking around the park, especially in the more wooded section, I came across many of these cement chunks just lying around. Anytime I see something like this I am curious how they got there and what they are still doing there. Why didn't anyone clean this up? I like to come up with silly fantasy reasons for this in my head, like ruins of an old castle. Unfortunately that is most likely not what this is...

I snooped around online and these seem to be remnants of long ago. Back in the 60s and 70s there was a trend of creating concrete furniture like benches and tables along the Charles River parks. This area was one of those spots, but as they fell into disrepair the parts were left behind like we see them now.

Another surprising thing I saw in the park was a strange modernist box building. Surrounded by a moat!

I was not expecting to see whatever this was, so of course it was the first thing I tried to look up after the trip. This is the Herter Center. The Herter Center was originally built in the 60s as the home for the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). However, its location was not great for tourism and visitors, so after 2 years it moved. The ICA now lives in the Seaport neighborhood of Boston.

After the ICA, the New England Sports Museum moved into the building in the 1980s. That didn't work out either. Now the museum operates in the upper floors of the TD Garden, sharing a home with the Boston Bruins and Celtics. Now the Herter Center is dormant and covered in graffiti.

Recently (2016 recently so I guess decade ago... that's crazy) there were proposals to make use of the building. An amphitheater in the park used for outdoor events has requested it for administrative offices and storage. The State of Massachusetts has proposed it become a ranger station or environmental education center (like the Powder House in Magazine Beach). The Friends of Herter Park have requested it return to its artistic roots and become an exhibition hall for local artists. If I could pick, that would be my choice. But we will have to wait and see!

I buried the lede a bit in the introduction to this blog by mentioning palimpsests again. Yes, this park has another storied history. Before it was Herter Park, this bit of land was the Charles River Speedway. Built in 1899, the speedway was a bicycle and harness racing track! How cool is that?

Today, the only part of the speedway that remains, a few blocks from Herter park, is the former racetrack superintendent's office. This building was converted to a police substation in 1941. Today the "Charles River Speedway" still exists in name but it is an upscale popup market and home to a brewery. That place is worthy of a palimpsest blog on its own!

Of course I had to stop by this place to check it out. As it happens, the weekend of our adventure happened to be a Renaissance fair themed market. A little too crowded for my liking, but I did still enjoy a beer and watching some heavily armored men and women hit each other with swords.

I look forward to warm weather and touching more grass. See ya next time!

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