State Representative John Lawn secured a $200,000 line-item appropriation for lighting and other improvements to the hundred-year-old Coletti-Magni Memorial Park in the heart of Nonantum. In addition, The Village Bank has pledged a multi-year contribution. This Watertown Street green space is best know for it brightly lit Christmas display, dominated by a huge Santa Claus, reindeer, elves, candles, and other colorful ornaments, occupying every inch of tree and fence space in its .48 acre. Now, through the newly formed Friends of Coletti-Magni Park, the park will be expanding its role as a multi-purpose community center, bringing long-established families and newer residents together to “activate the park,” in the words of third-generation Nonantum resident Chuck Proia, one of the Friends founders.
Elizabeth Metraux, Friends founder and a newer community member, noted the group’s three major priorities:
- Focus on the park as a green space
- Beautify the space around the park with planters and other amenities
- Open the space to arts and cultural events
The park hosts an annual summer concert event. This Halloween, it will be the site of a community pumpkin carving event led by a professional pumpkin carver, a bluegrass band, and an evening pumpkin-lit parade with treats for children in costume. Under consideration is a weekly outdoor movie night, possibly sponsored by a local business. Both Chuck Proia and Elizabeth Metraux view the park as an opportunity to unite the neighborhood, which she describes as “so open, so divers, so wonderful.” Chuck Proia observed that “because of the closeness of houses in Nonantum, you can’t afford not to know your neighbors.” Raising money to expand the park demonstrates “that it does take a Village,” he says.
Coletti-Magni Park is dedicated to WWI veterans and was named following World War II for the first two neighborhood residents to die in battle. Increasingly, it serves as a meeting place for people taking a walk in the village center, bringing neighbors together — a particularly important function in this post-Covid time. Inspired by its convenient location in the heart of both a residential and commercial center, Elizabeth Metraux, Chuck Proia, and other community members reached out to other local groups to help raise money and create new uses for the space. Elizabeth Metraux owns two co-working spaces on Adams Street, for people who generally work from home but need a daytime meeting space. At night, the office hosts student writing classes, music and arts programs, and other community activities. Chuck Proia is a Newton firefighter and chair of the St. Mary of Carmen Society annual Festa; he also serves on the board of the Nonantum Children’s Christmas Party. Recognizing the importance in cementing public-private partnerships, Metraux and Proia explain that much of their effort to raise between $750,000 and $1,000,000 is focused on securing grant money from a range of non-public funding sources, rather than competing for scarce public funding dollars.
The Friends of Coletti-Magni Park website, which announces that “Good Things Are Growing,” offers a community survey asking people what they want to see in the park. The overwhelming responses, according to Elizabeth Metraux, were suggestions for more arts and culture, a farmers market, yoga, tai chi, and civic engagement opportunities. Nonantum, she says, is a “tapestry” of all the newcomer stories — Irish, French Canadian, Jewish, Italian — continuing to this day. She views Coletti-Magni Park as “hallowed” ground on which to create new uses and new stories. Visit the Friends website for more information.
