
The Johnson Memorial Gate on Westland Ave. has been repaired, the Fenway Civic Association announced last week. The gate, composed of two tall marble pillars which straddle the avenue at Hemenway St., serves as an opening to the eastern half of the Back Bay Fens.
“The Johnson Memorial Gates have stood as an elegant entryway to the Back Bay Fens for over a century,” the association’s former vice president Matthew Brooks said in a statement. “As venerable Fenway landmarks, we endeavor to restore and protect them for the continued betterment, benefit, and enjoyment of future generations.”
The
gate was first erected in 1905, named after a man whose widow donated
the money to have them built. Each pillar on the side of Westland Ave.
has four columns at its corners and four bronze lion heads on its faces.
Originally, two of the lion heads spouted water into adjacent marble
troughs, intended for horses to drink.
Since
its construction, the gate has been the subject of multiple restoration
efforts, including graffiti-resistant treatment in the 1980s. In 2018,
then-Mayor Marty Walsh recommended that the gate be given $200,000
toward repairs as part of the Community Preservation Act. The next year,
the city allocated $660,000 to improve the gate and the surrounding
park space on Westland Ave.
“Although
the Johnson Gates are not in the period of primary significance for the
Emerald Necklace, the monuments are historically significant,” the city
wrote on its website at the time.
The
Fenway Civic Association, which has advocated for the gate to be
repaired since 2013 and was part of the 2019 restoration effort, said in
a press release that it had most recently received funding from the
George B. Henderson Foundation, a grant organization exclusively
dedicated to the “enhancement of the physical appearance of the City of
Boston.”
The
association said that the grant was managed by the Emerald Necklace
Conservancy, a non-profit dedicated to protecting the parks. It also
received funding from the Boston Planning Department.
It did not specify how much funding it had received, and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A
local conservation company, Folan Waterproofing and Construction,
completed the masonry repairs in October and November of last year,
after receiving approval from the Parks Department, the Landmarks
Commission, and the Art Commission.
Repairs
included sealing cracked marble, removing iron stains, and installing
new pieces of color-matched granite to repair the base of each pillar.
Four black decorative bollards were installed at the corners of each
plinth. The conservators also sealed the horse troughs, which had
developed cracks in prior years due to rainwater collection, with
granite.
The Fenway
Civic Association said its one remaining improvement was the bronze lion
heads, which have weathered green since the gate’s construction.
“We
hope to repair some minor damage to these components and take some time
to celebrate the park in 2025,” Marie Fukuda, the co-chair of the
association’s parks committee, said in a statement.