How Large is Dorchester Park?
Probably about 26 acres. There are several published sizes ranging from a little over 30 acres down to around 23. The preliminary plan from Olmsted, Olmsted & Eliot hints that the community was shooting for about 40 acres. It was submitted to the city four years after the park was dedicated and was the only plan from the pioneering landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted who designed Boston's famed "Emerald Necklace" as well as countless park spaces and playgrounds around the city and the nation. It includes areas which are not part of the park we have today. The area at the upper right where the T has its train yards was not, and never has been, part of the park. There were other small lots in the drawing which may never have been acquired as well.
Although Olmsted's participation ended with this drawing, if you look carefully you'll see a path which follows the modern macadam walkway-service road. There's also an unforested section where the baseball field is. It's believed that a furniture maker had his woodlot there, so it would already have been cleared of trees.
List of lots acquired for Dorchester Park For other numbers, consider the example calculations made by someone who added together the component plots acquired over the years. Do the math, and the final number is over 30 acres. That number includes just over four acres "transferred from Hospital Dept." in 1925. This may have been the "Convalescents Home" shown in the Olmsted plan. Carney Hospital acquired about the same amount of land at that location in 1968. This accounts for the most frequently seen figure of 26 acres. Some residents remember that the land was used mostly for sports.
The Dorchester Park Association took the initiative to have the park designated an Historic Landmark. The political climate has improved considerably from the days when private land takings shrank the existing park land. But, Historic Landmark status will add another layer of protection for the future and may make it easier to fund some of our restoration initiatives as well.