Mayor’s Letter

One of our most pivotal responsibilities as public servants is the care and protection of our open spaces. These resources cannot be replicated or easily replaced. Our parks and natural resources will exist well past the generations of municipal managers who act as custodians of public land. It is imperative that we protect and preserve these natural assets and not take them for granted. We hold the highest regard for the precious gifts of land bestowed on our city more than 130 years ago, with some parcels dating as far back as 1636 when the city was founded. We are very fortunate that we had prescient forefathers who laid the foundation for our magnificent park system.

The creation of the first Springfield Park Commission dates back to as early as 1880. The Park Commission’s initial goal was very simple: to provide a reprieve from the industrial age that was booming across the country and to give residents a respite from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. The Commission knew the public needed open space to enjoy and recreate and realized that if they did not set aside land for these purposes quickly, it would be taken over for more housing and factories. I am in awe when I reflect on the foresight these individuals exhibited to donate significant parcels of land, assist to purchase land, and encourage others to donate property to develop a first-class park system. The city now has parks in every one of our 17 neighborhoods and we have idyllic ponds and streams that meander through open spaces, eventually depositing into the Connecticut River.

I’m very honored and humbled the citizens of Springfield have had the confidence in me to serve as Mayor over the past fifteen years – the longest serving mayor in the city’s history. I would be remiss if I did not share that our public parks and open spaces will always hold a special place in my heart. As the son of immigrants from Italy, Forest Park was my family’s Riviera. My parents, Al and Clara, and grandparents sought to build their family home and business in the heart of the Forest Park neighborhood, which gave my bother Alfonso, my sister Joanne, and I the opportunity to explore and enjoy the 735 acres of Forest Park daily. It was where I would learn to harvest mushrooms with my grandparents, play sports, and enjoy the refreshing pool or seek shade under the trees on warm summer days.

I love Forest Park so much that my wife Carla and I decided to reside and raise our two daughters, Cassandra and Chiara, just blocks from where I grew up. Now they too share my fondness of this Crown Jewel of Springfield. That’s what makes Springfield so unique — everyone has a neighborhood park and has precious memories of their best-loved park.

As we celebrate this anniversary of our parks, I want to recognize Executive Director of Parks, Buildings, and Recreation Management Patrick Sullivan who has been invaluable and instrumental in the care and renovation of our municipal parks. I am proud that he has been a key member of my administration. I would like to thank Joe Carvalho and Wayne Phaneuf of The Republican for wanting to celebrate our parks and open spaces. I appreciate their countless hours of research in the development of this history and am pleased that this book will rekindle many cherished memories from readers with recollections of their favorite parks.

“Parks, in their purest form, are an attempt to restore what once was. They are a democratic ground, where nature can thrive unspoiled, and humans only interfere to preserve nature’s beauty.”

- Frederick Law Olmsted.

The City of Springfield is truly fortunate that in the 1880s there was a consensus decision made to create a municipal park system. By the 1920s, thousands of acres were already set aside for parks and open space and protected from development. Now every neighborhood has a park, including the crown jewel of them all — Forest Park. Practically everyone who has lived in Springfield has experienced the majesty of Forest Park. Patrons reveled in family picnics; a reunion of friends; their best baseball game; skating once on Porter Lake and now at Cyr Arena; visiting the current Zoo