The little things that make neighborhoods

A lovely new spot has emerged at the foot of the Arthur Fiedler Footbridge, where the Back Bay and Beacon Hill connect. It’s Tom White’s Garden, a memorial to a Beacon Street man who died in April.

The garden says a lot about the people who live in downtown Boston and how they make a neighborhood.

Let’s start with Tom. He was quirky. He took care of several buildings around the intersection of Beacon and Arlington streets and kept a watchful eye on what was going on. His family was small. His circle of friends was large. He was interested in the Red Sox and politics. He was an America Firster, and he ran for office a few years back.

He was like a lot of Back Bay and Beacon Hill residents. The outside media usually portray these neighborhoods as filled with titans of industry and wealthy heirs flying in on private jets.

There are people like that here. But wealth and privilege are beside the point. The real story of downtown living is that, unlike what happens in some communities, Boston’s downtown neighborhoods are quietly accepting. Varying eccentricities, styles of life, sexual orientations, heritages, skin colors and cultures—all are welcome. That accepting attitude is one of the reasons some of us live downtown. It goes a long way toward making good neighborhoods.

Tom’s quirkiness made him interesting, and also invaluable. He and others like him are critical to the sound operation of our neighborhoods. They keep watch over things. They fix things. They water the cats and the plants. Some are busybodies, wagging their fingers at the trash scofflaws and errant dog owners. They shoo people away from parking and obstructing the street cleaners.

They don’t live in lavish quarters like everyone in downtown Boston is supposed to, according to the outside world. Instead, they are often outside, sitting on someone’s steps, talking to neighbors, sweeping up debris. They live here for a long time and everyone in their neck of the woods knows them. One icy day Tom found a neighbor’s daughter outside her house without a key and with no one answering the door. He took her in and treated her to hot chocolate until her parents returned.

It’s fitting then that neighbors decided to put in the garden and dedicate it to Tom. Coincidentally, in prompting neighbors to establish this garden, Tom continued to contribute to neighborliness in a way he couldn’t predict.

A garden in this location was installed about a decade ago or so by Don Scott, who took care of another Beacon Street building and has since moved. After Don left, the garden languished, grew weedy and finally disappeared. Construction on a nearby building didn’t help.

Once the construction was finished a few neighbors decided it would be a good time to bring back the garden. So Beacon Street resident Larrie Rockwell and landscape architect Bobby Shippey concocted a plan. The plan took root this summer when neighbors got the idea to dedicate the garden to Tom, said Heidi Lehner of Beaver Place.

Heidi was embarrassed to be named as a mover and shaker of this effort since many people participated, and she said that Larrie and Bobby would be too. Fiddlesticks. They should be recognized. With the plan, a budget and the idea for the memorial, they called on their neighbors for financial support. Within a few weeks about 40 households had contributed toward the garden.

Heidi, who has lived on Beaver Place for about ten years, said that through this effort she met neighbors she had never seen before. She now has a neighborhood email list, a resource that should come in handy if other matters crop up.

And she saw that when there is a project, neighbors want to jump in. A real estate developer who had redone several nearby buildings had had an on-and-off relationship with Tom, since Tom was always after him to move his contractors’ trucks. Nevertheless, when he saw Larrie, Bobby and Heidi out with their shovels trying to dig up the concrete around the footbridge landing, he sent over one of his guys with a jack hammer to do it right, and then he donated a bench.

It took the ladies and their neighbors about four weeks to do the job, which was completed in early July. The Department of Conservation and Recreation donated mulch and a guy who pruned the tree. One of the maintenance men in the area is watering the garden with a hose from a nearby building. “Everyone will be out weeding and fertilizing,” said Heidi.

Despite the crowds going to the Esplanade concerts over the footbridge, none of the plants have been trampled, and the garden looks fine. A neighborhood party will be held this fall to “officially cut the ribbon,” Heidi said.

The garden is small. The man who is memorialized is not one of the rich and famous. The neighbors didn’t know they’d grow into a real neighborhood in doing the project. But the impact is big in the hearts and minds of everyone who goes by.

One thought on “The little things that make neighborhoods

  1. Josean

    Tom was the best!
    A stepfather who became more than a father figure to me. I love and miss him very much.
    Thank you all for the support, your kind words remembering and honoring him with a little piece of Boston. He deserves it

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