Pope John Paul II Park Reservation, officially the Saint Pope John Paul II Park, and also known as Pope Park, is a

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "Federated state, state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on accou ...

bordering the

Neponset River The Neponset River is a river in eastern Massachusetts in the United States. Its headwaters are at the Neponset Reservoir in Foxborough, near Gillette Stadium. From there, the Neponset meanders generally northeast for about to its mouth at ...

in the Dorchester section of

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. The park was reclaimed from the former site of a

landfill A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...

and the Neponset

Drive-In A drive-in is a facility (such as a restaurant or Drive-in theater, movie theater) where one can driving, drive in with an automobile for service. At a drive-in restaurant, for example, customers park their vehicles and are usually served by ...

as part of the Lower Neponset River Master Plan and the development of the

Neponset River Reservation Neponset River Reservation is a Massachusetts state reservation along the Neponset River in the towns of Milton and Dorchester, near where the river flows through an estuary into the Boston Harbor. It is adjacent to the Dorchester-Milton Lowe ...

. It is managed by the

Department of Conservation and Recreation The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) is a state agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, situated in the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. It is best known for its parks and parkways. Th ...

, which has restored a

salt marsh A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. I ...

area and planted native trees and shrubs. The area now attracts an increased variety of birds to the habitat, including

snowy egret The snowy egret (''Egretta thula'') is a small white heron. The genus name comes from Provençal French for the little egret, , which is a diminutive of , 'heron'. The species name ''thula'' is the Araucano term for the black-necked swan, a ...

s and

great blue heron The great blue heron (''Ardea herodias'') is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North and Central America, as well as far northwestern South America, the Caribbea ...

History

The park received funding and work began in 1998, following several years of delays. It was constructed on the sites of a former

drive-in theater A drive-in theater/theatre or drive-in cinema is a form of movie theater, cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor movie screen, a projection booth, a concession stand, and a large parking area for automobiles. Within this enclosed area, c ...

(the Neponset Drive-in Theater) and an adjacent landfill (the Hallet Street dump) purchased in 1984 and 1973, respectively, by the Massachusetts Metropolitan District Commission (now the

). It was named in honor of the visit by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

to Boston in 1979, in which the Pope celebrated his first

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

in the United States. The park was dedicated in 2000 by then Massachusetts Governor

Paul Cellucci Argeo Paul Cellucci (; April 24, 1948 – June 8, 2013) was an American politician, lawyer, and diplomat. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 69th governor of Massachusetts from 1997 to 2001 and as the United States Ambassador to ...

, and opened to the public in 2001. Following the canonization of Pope John Paul II, the park was officially redesignated as the "Saint Pope John Paul II Park", in a bill signed by Massachusetts Governor

Charlie Baker Charles Duane Baker Jr. (born November 13, 1956) is an American politician serving as the sixth president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, since 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 72nd governor of Massa ...

in 2019.

Activities and amenities

The park includes trails for walking, hiking and running, including the

Lower Neponset River Trail The Lower Neponset River Trail is a rail trail running along the Neponset River in the Dorchester section of Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusett ...

. It also offers bird watching, fishing catch and release in some parts of the park, open space fields for soccer, picnicking, restrooms, and playgrounds, and it is home to many road races.

References

External links

Pope John Paul II Park Reservation
Department of Conservation and Recreation
Neponset River Greenway Map
Department of Conservation and Recreation {{DEFAULTSORT:Pope John Paul Ii Park Reservation State parks of Massachusetts Massachusetts natural resources Parks in Suffolk County, Massachusetts Pope John Paul II