EXETER – Momentum is gaining for a pocket park honoring the town’s Black history, which is proposed to be built at Swasey Parkway.
Town volunteer Renay Allen presented an early conceptual design of the Black Heritage Park to the Select Board last week. The design calls for building a small park on the non-river side of the street just behind the downtown entrance to the parkway. The design Allen presented featured two benches and a sundial as a placeholder art feature, pending submissions from local artists.
Allen was seeking guidance from the Select Board before proceeding with final designs, fundraising and issuing a call to local artists to submit proposals for the art feature.
Allen has committed to paying for a portion of the design and construction of the park through the sale of her recently published mystery novel trilogy. She wrote three books about an Exeter artist who solves mysteries in the present by learning about some of the town’s Black historical figures in the 1700s and 1800s.
Allen said the park will pay tribute to the freed Black slaves enclave, who settled in Exeter near Swasey Parkway in the 1700s. She noted the American Independence Museum was at one time the New Hampshire treasury where Black Revolutionary War veterans would collect their pensions.
“This area is centrally located in between a concentration of former Black homes on Water and Green streets, the location of the Baptist Church in that era, which is now the Folsom tavern, and three former black businesses at 127-129 Water street,” Allen said. “I’d like to remind you that almost 10 Black Revolutionary War soldiers settled here, and that kind of seemed the genesis of this larger enclave that we had.”
Since she originally pitched the idea to the Select Board over the summer, Allen has formed an ad-hoc pocket park committee with stakeholders such as the Swasey Parkway Trustees, American Independence Museum, the Historical Society and Historic District Commission. Allen and the group hosted an informational Zoom session Feb. 19 to discuss their vision for the project with members of the community, which has been viewed more than 700 times.
After Allen’s presentation, Select Board Chairman Niko Papakonstantis encouraged her to hold similar meetings to keep the community informed of the group’s progress.
The consensus of the board was to green light Allen and her committee’s design and fundraising efforts, as well as putting out the call to artists for the project.
Monday’s discussion primarily centered on how the design of the park would be affected if the town decides to permanently close Swasey Parkway off to vehicular traffic, which has been done temporarily throughout the pandemic to give residents more room to walk around and socially distance.
The Select Board is considering making the change permanent, but it would need state and Town Meeting approval.
Papakonstantis suggested the group produce two separate designs, one anticipating the town voting to close the parkway for vehicular traffic, and the other anticipating motorists still being able to drive along the parkway.
If the parkway remains open to traffic, Papakonstantis suggested they consider relocating the pocket park elsewhere within the property where it could be accessed by a crosswalk.
“Undoubtedly there’s support for the project, but how can we do it best safely (and) within a period of time that works for you?” Papakonstantis said. “If we have something a little more concrete, a little more solid to consider, I think it helps to answer some of our questions.”
