The city of Salem dedicated and named Charlotte Forten Park at 289 Derby St. in Salem, MA on September 20, 2019. The park has been under development for two years, the result of long placemaking discussions between the City of Salem, Salem Main Streets, the Salem Public Space Making Project – led by Claudia Paraschiv, Creative Collective, and other city leaders and officials.
Charlotte Forten Park was designed through a community-based process by landscape designers Clara Batchelor and Megan Tomkins of CBA Landscape Architects. Construction of the park was possible thanks to a grant from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
The City of Salem voted to name the 25,000 sq. ft. park after Charlotte Forten Grimké, an African-American anti-slavery activist, poet, and educator who became the first African-American hired to teach white students in a Salem Public School, Eppes Grammar School.
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