2015-2017 | Egleston Square Peace Garden

From 2015 to 2017 our chapter partnered with Egleston Square Main Streets, a local non-for-profit organization, to improve and revitalize the Egleston Square Peace Garden. Once a vacant lot situated across the street from the Community Youth Center, the park was transformed from an underutilized and unmaintained plot of land into a desirable local amenity. Egleston Square Main Streets worked with the city of Boston and the local community to clean up the plot and transform it into a public park. The Peace Garden now functions as a gathering place for the neighborhood, which has encouraged locals to come together in celebration of their community, and has helped revive the surrounding businesses by increasing foot traffic in the area.

The first phase of our proposed project was to build an ADA ramp for the stage in the Peace Garden, which would allow disabled and elderly community members to have access to the 4-foot high platform. The stage was recently constructed by Youthbuild Boston, another local volunteer group, and has allowed community members to host concerts, movie nights, and other outdoor activities in the Garden. The subsequent phases of our project consist of minor but impactful installations to continue improving on the usage and accessibility of the Peace Garden, and foster a strong sense of community. Freedom by Design will also continue to conduct monthly clean-up’s at the Peace Garden as a way of taking ownership of site that we invested in for over a year.