On Wednesday, July 23, City Councilor Stephen Farrell met with the Public Facilities committee to support the proposed renaming of the 19 roadways of Oak Hill Park in honor of fallen veterans. Currently these roadways are named for letters of the alphabet. Councilor Farrell highlighted the historical significance of renaming the roadways in Oak Hill Park – which was built for returning World War II veterans – along with emphasizing the need to better honor Newton’s fallen veterans.
The project was originally conceived by Jon Melick, a former longtime resident of Oak Hill Park who has written a history of Oak Hill Park and who grew up there with former Ward Councilor Holly Ryan. Together they brought this idea to Councilor Farrell, who had succeeded Councilor Ryan, and over the last year Councilor Farrell has led the effort to change the roadway names. The next step will be a public hearing.
After World War II, returning servicemen, anxious to start families, needed places to live, and the existing housing supply was not sufficient. To better accommodate these families, the City of Newton designated the area along the southernmost part of the city, bordering on West Roxbury – now known as Oak Hill Park – to be developed into single-family housing units strictly for veterans who had lived in Newton before the war.
The design of the project began in 1946, and the construction began in phases starting in 1948. By the end of that year, 73 houses had been built and were occupied by returning veterans, although the utilities were not fully functional until the winter of 1949. Oak Hill Park was designed to offer a range of convenient facilities and services for the veteran community, including the Memorial School, a strip-mall shopping center, retail stores, gas stations, and a branch of the Newton Free Library.
“One of the best things about growing up in Oak Hill Park, in the early years, is that there was always plenty to do,” Jon Melick wrote in his article on the history of Oak Hill Park, “If anyone wanted to find someone to play with, they could just walk around and find someone, or head up to Memorial School.”
Many of the original one-story homes in Oak Hill Park have been replaced or expanded into much larger homes. In addition to the renaming of these roadways in Oak Hill Park, Councilor Farrell hopes to preserve one of the remaining homes from the original park and revitalize a pathway so that a memorial can be built that gives thanks to the men and women who served in the war.
Referring to the renaming of the 19 roadways, Councilor Farrell said, “This is a great opportunity for people to appreciate [veterans’] service. The goal for these 19 soldiers is to get approval to have a ceremony that renames these roadways all at once.”
Councilor Farrell has also been working on this project alongside Seth Bai, Newton’s Director of Veterans’ Services. Although not heavily involved with the project currently, Bai will be part of the subsequent stages of the renaming process. While the process for choosing names for the new roadways has not yet been determined, Councilor Farrell wants the names of the veterans to be chosen through a randomized process to mimic the style of how these names were picked for military service.
“This is bigger than something I’ve done in the past, but I anticipate that this will turn over a few stones and give people the ability to reunite with the veteran aspect of Newton,” Bai said.
There will be a public hearing in September for people to comment and to ask questions about the project.
Chloe Yu is a Fig City News summer intern and will be a junior at Cornell University in the fall.
Ed. Note: We corrected the origin of this initiative and added a link to the history of Oak Hill Park.
