Somerville Opens New Allen Street Playground

SOMERVILLE, MA — A new playground is now open for the youngest Somervillains near Union Square. The Allen Street Garden and Pocket Park, which officially opened last month with a socially distant ribbon-cutting ceremony, now features imaginative and engaging play structures for children ages 2-5, as well as renovated community garden facilities.

The park is located at 30 Allen Street, off Somerville Avenue.

Once a vacant lot, gardens were built in 2007 after a community-driven campaign to transform the site into a green space. Community Preservation Act funds were awarded to redevelop the site to incorporate a small playground in 2016, and construction began three years later.

A welcome oasis in this densely populated neighborhood, the gardens will now provide a safe, dedicated recreation space for children and families, in particular the CAAS Head Start students across the street.

The renovated site also features new garden plots, wheelchair-accessible plant beds, a larger shed, a plaza space with café tables and a water bottle filler, permeable playground surfaces that allow for the infiltration of stormwater, and wider, more accessible sidewalks along the street.

The gardens will be returned to gardeners for planting this spring. Learn more about the space at somervillema.gov/allenstreetplayground.