Friends of Public Garden Celebrates the Big Fifty
While Friends couldn’t gather at their traditional Green and White Ball, the virtual event was an opportunity to see footage of Boston’s parks over decades and seasons. Clips showed families and children enjoying the city’s greenspace in both pandemic and pre-pandemic times.

Mother’s Day Was Conceived in Boston
Howe was not an average mother. She was an activist, an abolitionist, a women’s suffrage advocate and a writer who clashed with her prominent transcendentalist husband Samuel Gridley Howe over his wish that she shun public life. According to her diary, he beat her.

Arthur Fiedler Bridge To Close For Summer
The Arthur Fiedler footbridge will be closed for maintenance and painting from mid-May through the end of August. The closure will cut the most direct route from the downtown to the Charles River Esplanade during the park’s busiest time of the year. The ramped concrete pedestrian bridge links David G.

Returning To Normal?
Through June 20, the Swan Boats will operate on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10am-4pm. From June 21 through Labor Day, they will operate every day from 10am-5pm..

LaGrange Apartments Will Be Sold as Condos
Developers of 21-floor building under construction at 47 to 55 LaGrange Street will convert its planned 176 residential units from rentals to owned condominiums..

CRIME & PUNISHMENT
A man parked his 2012 Subaru in front of 29 Newbury Street and exited with a small mixed breed dog who lunged at the victim and bit her left leg breaking the skin. The canine’s owner asked if she was ok but then walked away towards the Public Garden.

Beacon Hill Through Time
The Hill’s South Slope didn’t become the famously upscale residential area that people think of now until well after 1800, as the new wealth from the China Trade and other shipping, followed by fortunes made in manufacturing and finance, paid for grand mansions,...

Beacon Hill Is for Lovers
Forget Paris. Beacon Hill is for real lovers. Ben Vainer recently wed Laura Babey. Appropriately enough, the wedding party included the groom’s grandmother, Nancy Schon, who designed the duckling statues in the Public Garden..

Free Summer Art Sessions Planned
“The learning loss we’re talking about in Boston is apparent,” said Sara Mraish Demeter, founder and executive director of Art Resource Collaborative for Kids (ARCK). This summer, ARCK is partnering with Operation P.E.A.C.E. to offer in-person arts and movement sessions for students in Fenway and Dorchester.

CDC Faced a Very Challenging Year
Operating at the intersection of development and community service, the Fenway Community Development Corporation (CDC) was hard hit by Covid. Last Thursday marked its first annual meeting in two years. Its leaders did not shy from describing the challenges they faced.

Buy Local and Earn A Gift Card for Dinner
SEBA has been an anchor for Motsenigos, from helping her apply for PPP loans, to answering questions and circulating grant opportunities. SEBA’s guidance is “never ending,” Motsenigos New England, CouCou, Barre3, Lekker, said. “I would have had no idea what to do Tweed, Soma Optical, MFLYNN, Urban without them.

Zoning Change Would Fund Local Art Spaces
Developers in Economic Development Area South, a district of the South End on Harrison Avenue, can request higher height limits in return for allocating space for the arts, or by contributing through a “cash out” option.

Loving St. Botolph
Residents of St. Botolph pitched in last Saturday to cleanup their neighborhood..

Remember When?
Park Plaza in the 1930s.