East-West Trail Signage Presentation & Walk: Beaver Brook to Hadwen Arboretum
Join Park Spirit of Worcester and Clark University's Listening In Nature program as we celebrate the completion of twenty-two newly installed directional and informational signs and kiosks along Worcester's 14-mile East-West Trail. The signs and kiosks feature maps of the trail and colorful narratives highlighting the past and present of each green space and neighborhood through which the trail passes. Hikers can now enjoy the trail's varied landscape while learning how it all came to be.
Our kiosk unveiling event will spotlight the research of Clark University History Professor Janette Greenwood and local historian Frank Morrill on the early 20th century settlement of people of color in the Beaver Brook Neighborhood. Their story is told through archived photographs by former neighborhood resident William Bullard, some of which are reproduced on Beaver Brook Park's East-West Trail kiosk.
John Rogan, Clark University Professor of Geography, will also present the accomplishments he and a team of students have achieved in restoring Clark's Hadwen Arboretum, the midpoint of the East-West Trail.
A short hike along the East-West Trail from Beaver Brook Park to Hadwen Arboretum will follow the presentation. It will include a viewing along the Mann Street side of Beaver Brook Park of one of two East-West Trail POW! WOW! Worcester murals painted by artist Eamon Gillen. Gillen's other East-West Trail mural is on Binienda Beach at Coes Reservoir.
Beaver Brook Park's East-West Trail kiosk is the last of the twenty-two signs and kiosks installed by Park Spirit during a three year project to enhance trail visibility and accessibility, following the trail's initial mapping in 2015. It was made possible by funding from a Recreational Trails Grant through the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). The project also included the installation of twenty-three mileage marker posts, sixty-six street signs, 250 trail blazes, granite pillars at each end of the trail, and the two POW!WOW! Worcester murals.
The project was a partnership between Park Spirit and the DCR, the Worcester Department of Parks and Recreation, and the Greater Worcester Land Trust. It was done in collaboration with Clark University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the College of the Holy Cross, the Worcester Historical Museum and Worcester Public Library, as well as local community groups the Green Hill Park Coalition, the Green Hill Neighborhood Association, the Friends of Newton Hill, the Friends of Institute Park, and the Coes Zone Task Force.
While project materials were funded through the DCR grant, the research, design, and composition of content for the kiosks, and the installation of all kiosks, signs, and mileposts was an all-volunteer effort encompassing more than 1,250 volunteer hours and three separate Eagle Scout projects. With the value of supplies and volunteer time factored in, Park Spirit calculates the project's total investment at $49,509.
About Park Spirit: Park Spirit of Worcester, Inc. is a non-profit organization working to promote the protection, enhancement, and use of Worcester’s parks and public spaces. Founded in 1988, Park Spirit lends its nonprofit status to numerous 'member organizations' that do location-specific community organizing and it also facilitates a number of projects and public benefit activities, such as the East-West Trail and the public opening of Bancroft Tower at Salisbury Park.
About Listening In Nature: Clark University's Listening in Nature program events are designed to cultivate appreciation and exploration of the natural world and to remind ourselves of the interdependence of all living things. The program is part of A new Earth conversation at Clark, a transformative campus-wide climate initiative which sees the ecological crisis, racism, political upheaval and the pandemic as deeply interdependent, and understands that practices of slowing down and listening are vitally important as we navigate these realities.
