Kennedy Park (Fall River, Massachusetts)

Infobox_nrhp | name =Kennedy Park
nrhp_type =

---

caption =
location= Fall River, Massachusetts
lat_degrees = 41
lat_minutes = 41
lat_seconds = 44
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 71
long_minutes = 10
long_seconds = 12
long_direction = W
locmapin = Massachusetts
area =
built =1868
architect= Olmstead Brothers; Vaux & Co.
architecture= Colonial Revival, Shingle Style
added = February 16, 1983
governing_body = Local
mpsub=Fall River MRA
refnum=83000686cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2008-04-15|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]

Kennedy Park is a 57-acre historic park located in Fall River, Massachusetts. It is bounded by South Main Street, Bradford Avenue, Middle, and Bay Streets in the southern part of the city.

Built in 1868, designed by famed 19th century landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux, the park was originally known as "South Park". It was updated in 1904 by the Olmstead Brothers. The park was renamed in 1963 following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The park provides a vast area of open space in the middle of a particularly dense portion of the city, surrounded by many triple-decker working-class tenement houses and the Catholic St. Anne's Church.

The park has three sections: a flat upper section used for baseball and recreation fields, a sloping middle portion with sweeping views of Mount Hope Bay, and a lower somewhat wooded portion along the Bay. [ [http://www.mass.gov/dcr/stewardship/histland/reconReports/fallriver.pdf Taunton River Landscape Inventory, 2005] ]

The park was added to the National Historic Register in 1983. It was restored in 2001. [ [http://www.projo.com/massachusetts/content/projo_20050118_fr18park.1429fe.html Providence Journal Article, January 18, 2005] ]

Kennedy Park has long been used a place for public events in the city.

In September 1996, over 25,000 people gathered in the lower portion of the park to see then President Bill Clinton during a campaign stop for his 1996 re-election. [ [http://www.heraldnews.com/homepage/x1850232285 The Herald News, June 28, 2007] ]

Each August since 1986, the park hosts the Great Holy Ghost Feast of New England, a celebration of Azorean culture which attracts over 200,000 people each year. [ [http://www.ojornal.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17082572&BRD=2677&PAG=461&dept_id=543384&rfi=6 O'Journal, August 18, 2006] ]

ee also

*Fall River, Massachusetts
*List of Registered Historic Places in Fall River, Massachusetts

References