An Outdoor Neighborhood

Tony Vogel believes Robbins Farm Park is a treasure for its neighbors and all Arlington residents.

"We're so lucky to have this place," said Vogel, president of the Friends of Robbins Farm Park's board of directors. "It really is the physical and cultural heart of its neighborhood and used by people from all over."

The park, located along Eastern Avenue in Arlington Heights, has a particularly beautiful view of the Boston skyline and attracts viewers during each season of the year, according to Vogel.

"There's always something going on – sports events, cultural and educational activities, sledding in the winter – and you always see people in the park," he said. "In today's hectic world, you don't have enough opportunities to see your neighbors but you do at the park. It's like an outdoor neighborhood."

Vogel firmly believes in maintaining such a lovely space and joined the Friends of Robbins Farm Park about six years ago to do so. The community organization formed more than a decade ago to promote the beautification, restoration and improvement of the park.

The town bought the property for a nominal amount money in the 1940s from Nathaniel Robbins, who Vogel described as an eccentric and civic-minded man who farmed the land as a labor of love. "He let children play on the farm and help him pick apples," he said. "When he sold the farm to the town, it was his intent that it be used by children."

The Friends include children in clean-up activities and encourage them to use the park through art programs and athletic events.

Since the 1940s, the town has kept up the park but needed help as time went by, Vogel said.

"The Friends group formed to help spur on the renovation of the park – originally people who live in the area – but now has grown to about 400 people," he said. "We work in partnership with the town to maintain the park."

For example, the Friends raised funds to build a playground in the park in 2003, often contributes money to maintain and support programs and has a clean-up each fall and spring where children and adults work side-by-side raking leaves and picking up garbage. The group has also repainted and repaired some of the park benches.

"When we see something that needs repair, or alert the town and donate money toward the effort," Vogel said.

The group's biggest event is a July Fourth celebration each year. "It was started by the town, but Arlington has had to cut back spending in the last few years so we are sponsoring it," Vogel said. "We raise $5,000 for the event and have the John Penny Band play music until it's dark, and then we project the Boston Pops concert on a large screen."

The Friends sponsor numerous events at the park including plays, movies and concerts. On Saturday, the Friends invite everyone to Rockin' Robbins, their second free concert of the summer from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The bands – Public Interest and Chris Nauman & Friends – are residents who live in the park area and are donating their time. The music is suitable for all ages, Vogel said, and families are encouraged to bring a picnic dinner.

Future projects the Friends are working on include repairing or replacing the double 50-foot slide and building a human sundial at the viewing oval. The idea behind the sundial, Vogel said, is that a person who walks into the space will become the gnomon -- the vertical part that casts a shadow and tells the time.

"We've been involving children in the design and hope to have this built within two or three years," he said.

In the initial phase of the project, the hope is to introduce students to the concept of sundial, light, and shadows, and earth rotation.

Working through the Science and Math Enrichment (SAME) Committee at the Brackett and other curriculum programs, the Friends will encourage students to help design the oval so students at all levels and ages will appreciate the convergence of art, science and math in everyday experience.  In later phases, the Friends plan to take student designs to a more sophisticated, buildable level and initiate fundraising for a graffiti proof and enjoyable viewing oval.

The Friends of Robbins Farm Park invite active membership in the organization. For additional information, visit the web site.