Hello Friends of Newburyport Trees:
Another Newburyport “friends” group, the Friends of Battis Grove, now with few remaining members, is “closing the book” on its activities, and we have decided to donate our remaining meager funds to Friends of Newburyport Trees.
The Clipper City Rail Trail that now passes through Battis Grove opened in 2010 with great fanfare, and since then it has been enjoyed and marveled at by thousands of residents and visitors alike. It is quietly gratifying to know that the years of hard labor transforming the former wasteland into a park years ago are paying off today in public enjoyment. But many who enjoy the Newburyport Rail Trail today have no idea of the grassroots genesis of the linear park known as Battis Grove. The group of neighbors who volunteered much of the manual labor did a good job of staying out of sight and in the background, a desire that remains. All but a few are deceased or have moved away.
Almost 35 years ago, when I was a new arrival in Newburyport with property abutting the inactive railroad right-of-way in the North End, the swirling litter and the dumping of old tires, bedsprings, dead cats, etc. crashed through my personal threshold of tolerance. I began my own campaign to show that somebody cared about the narrow strip of green space, and eventually organized neighborhood work parties to clean up the railroad right-of-way, plant flowers, and haul out dead wood. For the first few years, we battled to a draw. We were still hauling out hubcaps and hundreds of beer cans. One spring there were several unregistered junk cars abandoned into the right-of-way near Washington Street. They were tank-like 1960s models. Too big to fit into a trash bag.
A few years later, a fellow in the neighborhood, the late John Battis (1937-2011), became involved. He was a musician and music teacher with a flexible schedule, and he was looking for a useful way to get some exercise. For almost a decade he “adopted” the area near Washington Street, and was an enthusiastic participant in our twice-a-year clean-ups. He freely admitted he was no landscaper, and his pruning was less than artistic, but he brought tireless energy to the work. He built the scalloped stone wall that is still in place from Washington Street to Merrimac Street – hauling about nine rocks at-a-time in his little hatchback car. When he moved to Maine in 1998, my neighbors and I knew we had to take up the slack, and we did, mowing, pruning, and tending-and-extending his stone wall.
We also hatched an idea to turn the stretch of right-of-way from Washington Street to Merrimac Street into an honest-to-goodness “linear park.” In late summer 2001 the Newburyport City Council approved our proposal for an addition onto its list of parks. We decided to name the park Battis Grove, in tribute to the selfless efforts of a neighborhood guy who saw something that needed doing and poured himself into the task. At the time we had a 15-year agreement with the MBTA (successor to B&M) to use the right-of way. In fall 2001 we had a well-attended dedication ceremony. The “Battis Grove” sign, which remains, was unveiled.
Then the real work began. Our group, by now formally known as the Friends of Battis Grove, came up with a plan for the Washington Street entrance area. We secured modest donations from the Institution for Savings and the Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank, which we used to purchase the two trees that flourish there today (a Redbud and a Golden Chain Tree). I built a dry-fitted New England stone wall along Washington Street from boulders found up-and-down the right-of-way. (Unfortunately it was demolished in 2008 to make way for the Rail Trail construction). Other rustic stone walls, benches, and birdhouses ensued. Plants and flowers were donated by people from blocks around. People actually used and valued the strip of green space in an otherwise dense neighborhood. (And it wasn't just for dogs!) During the summers I struggled to keep up with regular mowing of the open area near the Merrimac Street railroad bridge. In spring and fall our small band of neighbors --- the “Friends of Battis Grove” --- got together for all-day work sessions.
In short, our small band of anonymous grunt-workers --- who preferred to slink off anonymously behind the scenes --- planted the seeds of possibility for the Rail Trail we enjoy today. Routinely working to exhaustion, we were overjoyed when the city's Planning Dept. worked out a 99-year lease for the right-of-way, and pressed forward in planning, and eventually, construction. We were consulted in the planning stages, and we were glad to know that long-term maintenance was a high priority. (I wouldn't have to lug boulders and drag logs until I'm 100 years old after all.)
In more recent years, our band of grunt-workers has diminished. Fortunately, in the same recent years, the Washington Street entrances to the Rail Trail have been lovingly enhanced by new planters-and-pruners. These friends --- fellow independent volunteers --- will always have our full support. In deciding to liquidate our modest organizational assets, we sought to donate the funds to a non-profit known to work in the same spirit as the Friends of Battis Grove. Therefore I am pleased to pass our donation to the Friends of Newburyport Trees, so it can get on its way to benefit all of our citizens.
I am also pleased to convey the micro-history of this linear park for those who may believe that Newburyport was always the way that it is now. At best the story could serve as a reminder that people can actually get stuff done --- and make significant impact on the quality of neighborhood life --- without feasibility studies, grants, consultants, or wrangling with heavy equipment … or light bureaucracy. Sometimes all you need is the spark of your own human energy. Nurture that spark. Thank you.
-Anonymous
