The Inside Story of
Pulaski Park
Northampton , Massachusetts
LAUREN STIMSON , ASLA
People ’ s Park : History
The earliest maps and descriptions of the settlement of Northampton , MA gave us indication that the land that comprised what was to eventually be named Pulaski Park was always common open space . Colonial maps showed the space as ‘ livery ’ and ‘ stables ’, indicating common ground and a place of market and livestock activity . Nestled between two civic buildings , Memorial Hall and the Academy of Music , the Park has always fronted Main Street to the north , with the Mill River at its southern edge . The Mill River once ran through the village of Northampton , and powered the mills of the industrial downtown during the height of the mill activity in the mid to late 1800s .
I can recall a drive across the hills About Northampton , and my memory thrills Still with the sense of the infinity Of blue above that colder Italy Which lay , unstoried and untempled , far below The place we stopt to look from , and not less Ideal seemed the sylvan lovliness Than beauty ’ s home beside the Arno ’ s flow .
W . D . Howells
In the 1910s , Pulaski Park was first designed and built as a Victorian strolling park in the heart of the bustling industrial city . By the 1940s , the landscape of the Park had changed dramatically , with the burial of the adjacent Mill River , and the loss of significant riparian vegetation and tree canopy . Thirty years later , the City invested in landscape improvements to the Park to reflect the growth of the downtown . Ironically , the 1970s renovations made the Park more inwardly focused . Stands of dogwoods and street trees at the northern edge blocked the view to Main Street , and a grove of conifers planted along the southern edge obstructed the expansive view to the Holyoke Range . The green space at the heart of the Park was carved up into small islands of curbed lawn with over-scaled concrete walks edged by a few benches . The design lacked any kind of ecological connection to the memory of the Mill River that , decades before , had so influenced the Park landscape .
Time to Refresh
Plan | Stimson Associates
By 2007 , the Park was in need of revitalization once again . Much of the 1970s design had slipped into disrepair and the Park had become a disarray of random materials and elements
16 BSLA