Neathery:

Why am I here in this beautiful place with this beautiful woman? Stay tuned and find out. This is STAY focused, FOCUS REAL ESTATE's weekly video series. I'm here with Jen Mergel, she's with the Emerald Necklace Conservancy and she's here to tell us all about it. Jen, tell us about your job and what you do. 

Jen:

Thank you, Neathery, I am really excited to be here. I am the director of Experience and Cultural Partnerships at the Emerald Necklace Conservancy. We are a Non-profit, based at 350 Jamaica way at the Curley House and also in the Fens in the Back Bay. 

Neathery:

 So tell me, what does Conservancy mean? 

Jen:

Well, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy really wants to connect people to and through parks, particularly the Emerald Necklace Park System. So we are standing in the heart of the Emerald Necklace Park System at Jamaica Pond. And this is a Park System that comprises over 1100 acres. It's more than half of the Park System in the city of Boston and it really connects over a dozen neighborhoods. Really is the heart of the Green Space for the city, and we need to conserve it. It's an old Park System. I don't know if you know how old it is. 

Neathery:

 I'm dying to know. 

Jen:

 okay 

Neathery:

 How old is the park? 

Jen:

 Well, well, the Park System was created by Frederick Law Olmsted in the 1870's through 90s. 

Neathery:

 Who's that guy? 

Jen:

 Yes, Frederick Law Olmsted, I would call him, America's great place maker. He is the person who designed not just the park we're in, Jamaica Pond and everything from the Back Bay Fens to Franklin Park, but many other parks in greater Boston and the region and beyond. So, many people know of him as the designer of Central Park in New York. 

Neathery:

Sure. 

Jen:

Or Parkland in Chicago 

Neathery:

Right, or Seattle or Montreal. And his firm was based here. And so most people don't know that. All the magic came from Boston, people. 

Jen:

He wanted to do the best for Boston all the time, and he really achieved his dream with this Park System here in Boston. So it's pretty old, and we want to do a good job at taking care of it because Olmsted had some pretty important ideas-- 

Neathery:

Tell us about OLMSTED NOW. This is something that the Emerald Necklace Conservancy is promoting this year and just launching now, right? 

Jen:

Yes, yes. So OLMSTED NOW is an initiative, to collaborate and mark Olmsted's legacy with the fierce urgency of now. What Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King called us to do, to pay attention because tomorrow is too late. So it's a full season of opportunity for people to collaborate and engage between April and October of 2022. And really think about what parks mean to us today. So we are focusing on three themes, shared use, shared health and shared power in parks and public space. And we have over, at this point, hopefully more, 115 collaborators working with us on this initiative. 

Neathery:

How many events are you gonna be running this year for this? 

Jen:

Well, it all depends on how many people want to join the effort and offer them, but we have-- 

Neathery:

Get involved. 

Jen:

dozens of events beginning in April and moving their way through different sites both along the Necklace Park System and in greater Boston. So within a 60 mile radius of the city. 

Neathery:

I'm assuming you know the parks pretty well in the Emerald Necklace. You're pretty keyed-in to what's going on and where everything is. 

Jen:

Yeah. 

Neathery:

Where is your favorite place in the Necklace? Is there a hidden gem somewhere that we should know about? I wanna know. I wanna check that out. 

Jen:

Of course, many people know Jamaica pond, many people may not know a little pond next to Jamaica Pond called Wards Pond. 

Neathery:

Yeah, 

Jen:

And so there's a little tiny a little baby kettle pond next to the mama pond. 

Neathery:

So is Wards Pond your favorite place or is there somewhere else that you like to hang out? 

Jen- Well, there is a pretty special place. Inside Franklin park, there is a site called THE OVERLOOK RUINS. And it's next to The Big Place Fed, it's near White Stadium, and this is the remains, the stone remains, the steps and columns of the one, like very few building set Frederick Law Olmsted designed. But he designed this building almost as a Sports Clubhouse to look over the place, that when people were playing in the field 

Neathery- When did that Golf Course go in then? I love that. 

Jen:

I will be honest, I would have to look up the exact date, but I do know that Frederick Law Olmsted, he was even, you know, a member, the family was a member of the Golf Club, like in the Country Club in Brookline. And they were really engaged in the idea of people spending time outdoors, and both passively and through recreation. One of the reasons why I'm excited that we're standing here in the Jamaica Pond Boathouse, like the pavilion, is that, Frederick Law Olmsted actually turns 200 on April 26th, 2022. 

Neathery:

That's a big birthday. 

Jen:

And so we are inviting the community to come and celebrate with us here at the Boathouse, to bring together the community to join us with a slice of cake, join us to, you know, engage in this event, a few proclamations and thank people for their stewardship and their advocacy for the parks. And we have plenty more activities coming up August, September, etcetera, in Jamaica Pond in particular. So visit olmstednow.org to find out more. 

Neathery:

Thank you so much for being here and meeting with us, check out olmstednow.org for all the event information this summer and how to find the parks and everything that's going on. We really appreciate you meeting with us. It's a lovely day, lovely place. 

Jen:

Thank you.