Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway
The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway is Boston’s newest linear urban park – a vibrant ribbon of beautifully landscaped gardens, promenades, plazas, fountains, art, and specialty lighting systems that stretches over one mile through residential neighborhoods, the Financial District, and Harbor communities. Officially opened in October 2008, the 15-acre Greenway, which sits on land created from “The Big Dig,” has reconnected the City to the waterfront.
The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway is named after Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, the matriarch of the Kennedy Family who was born in the neighboring North End neighborhood. Her son, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, played an important role in establishing the Greenway.
The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy was established as an independently incorporated non-profit organization in 2004 to guide the emerging park system and raise funds for an endowment and operations. In 2008, the State Legislature confirmed the Conservancy as the designated steward of the Rose Kennedy Greenway; the Conservancy operates with a lease from the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (now Massachusetts Department of Transportation). Since February 2009, the Conservancy has operated the park, leading the maturation of this new civic space, strengthening its physical beauty, and encouraging a sense of a shared community in Boston.
The 2008 legislation established a 50%-50% public/private funding model that has proven successful. Today, each dollar from the state is leveraged by more than one dollar of private support. In just a few years under the Conservancy’s stewardship, the Greenway has blossomed into a place that welcomes millions of visitors for beauty, connection, and innovative offerings.
Read more about Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway: History of The Greenway, Public Programs On The Greenway
Famous quotes containing the words rose, fitzgerald and/or kennedy:
“When you realize how hard it is to know the truth about yourself, you understand that even the most exhaustive and well-meaning autobiography, determined to tell the truth, represents, at best, a guess. There have been times in my life when I felt incredibly happy. Life was full. I seemed productive. Then I thought,”Am I really happy or am I merely masking a deep depression with frantic activity?” If I don’t know such basic things about myself, who does?”
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—Bible: Hebrew Proverbs, 29:18.
President John F. Kennedy quoted this passage on the eve of his assassination in Dallas, Texas; recorded in Theodore C. Sorenson’s biography, Kennedy, Epilogue (1965)