New Friends group: Faxon Park needs an advocate

QUINCY — Steve Perdios knows a lot about Faxon Park. 

He knows the story behind the Faxon family's original donation of the land over 130 years ago; he knows about the long-forgotten plans to build a high school on an asbestos-ridden parcel; and he knows about its multiple expansions, native plant life and the animals who call the park home. 

And for every little thing Perdios knows about today's Faxon Park in Quincy's Ward 2, he has an equal number of ideas for improvement. 

"The park needs an advocate," he said on an icy walk with a reporter this week. 

Perdios is one of several nearby residents who have stepped up to be that advocate through a newly-created Friends of Faxon group. The park, one of the largest in Quincy and the only one left mostly wooded, is in dire need of care, upkeep and improvements, the group says. 

"Our goal is to preserve, maintain, clean up and restore the areas that need it," Lorelle Croall, a member of the group, said. "There is no real established advocacy group to maintain or do fun things or just speak up for it. . . We aren't looking to build a splash pad, we just want to maintain and preserve what's here."

Members of the Friends of Faxon see a future for the more than 90-acre park that includes marked and cleared walking paths and trail maps, an informational kiosk, bathrooms, a water fountain, tree maintenance and handicap accessibility. The group's dream list of amenities includes things as small as a doggie bag station, as large as the purchase of more land and everything in between. 

The park's new advocates want the "best kept secret of Ward 2" — as new city councilor Anthony Andronico called it — to be a go-to destination for dog walkers, nature lovers and families in the city. 

"More passive recreation is what we're looking for," Perdios said. "We have enough ball fields."

Faxon Park's revitalization has been a major sticking point for Brad Croall, Lorelle's husband and the ward's 10-year city councilor who stepped down last month. In his time on the council, Croall oversaw the renovation of the park's popular playground; the establishment of the Red Diamond Trail, the park's only formal trail; and the allocation of roughly $700,000 toward general improvements. 

The money was set aside as part of a larger, $27 million parks package in 2018 and has sat untouched since. Perdios said Quincy Parks Commissioner Dave Murphy recently attended a Friends of Faxon meeting and seemed open to the group's ideas, which include clearing and widening the barely-marked and fairly technical Blue Dot Trail.

"I really hope we find a way to implement an inclusive trail surface that accommodates people with mobility devices, our senior citizens and young families with strollers," Brad Croall said. 

Lorelle Croall said her biggest goal is to have the park inventoried by GPS and be able to provide maps to visitors of its currently unmarked and unmaintained trails.

 "There are a few other trails that are well worn and established, but they aren't mapped," she said. "There is no way to know unless you know. It would be really nice to have one map with everything the park has to offer." 

Faxon Park was first created when Henry Hardwick Faxon deeded 26.8 acres of land in 1885. Faxon left the parcel to the city with three conditions: it must remain a free public park, it must be called Faxon Park and "no intoxicating liquors shall even be sold on said premises. . . forever." Fifty years later, Faxon's son Henry Monroe Faxon added an additional 19.6 acres and, five years later, another 8.2 

In the 1990s, former Quincy Mayor James Sheets bought 21 acres of land next to Faxon Park for $3.5 million with plans to build a new Quincy High School. By 2000, Sheets had bent to the pressure of parents and residents to drop the plans after it was discovered the land was contaminated with asbestos and other material left over from when the area was a dump used by a Fore River shipyard operator. The land then became part of the park, was later capped and was leveled, but is now home to large dirt piles and goes largely unused. 

Faxon Park grew again in 2007 when the city bought a 14-acre parcel known as the Hazeltine property to stop a large residential development and the city added another 3-or-so acres a few years after that. 

The property now totals more than 90 acres of mostly-untouched land — it's wooded, much of its plant life is overgrown and unruly but it serves as a small escape from the hustle and bustle of city life.

"I think it's the nicest park in the entire city. Where else can you sit in the middle of a city and have view like this?" he asked, gesturing to the wood. "When you're on some of these trails, it feels like you're nowhere near a city." 

In an interview this week, Mayor Thomas Koch said he thinks Faxon Park has limitless potential, despite its relative unpopularity with residents when compared to other city parks like Merrymount and Kincaide.

"Those are more focused on active uses but we should never underestimate passive use. Parks like that are the lungs of the city, they breathe in the bad and breathe out the good," he said.

Koch said he'd like to add more lighted night activities, like maybe pickleball, tennis, shuffleboard or basketball courts; cut back overgrown bushes and add native plantings and focus on tree maintenance. 

Andronico, the new city councilor, said he's committed to keeping up momentum for improvements at Faxon. 

"A lot of the neighbors really care about the amenities offered to them in Faxon Park, so it's my job to make sure their voices are amplified," Andronico said. "The best community projects happen when the community is involved."