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East Boston Neighborhood Close to Destruction After 40 Year Fight OpenMediaBoston.org

Massport has requested to demolish the house on l8 Neptune Road EastBoston.com

Wood Island Park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in the 1890's. It was the northernmost park of the Emerald Necklace chain which includes the Arnold Arboretum, Back Bay Fens, Franklin Park, Jamaica Pond, Olmstead Park and the Riverway.

This oceanfront property was truly a "green" gem in the heart of a large industrialized city and the only way to get there was Neptune Road, one of the most prestigious streets in all of East Boston. It was two-lanes with an island in the middle and three rows of majestic elms guided the way to the park.

The East Boston that we know today was originally five islands — Noodle, Hog (later Orient Heights), Breed's, Governor's, Bird and Apple — that were connected using landfill, the latter three as part of the expansion of Logan Airport during World War II.

The Massachuset Native Americans History records begin in 1614 when there may have been as many as 3,000 Massachuset living in 20 villages around Boston Bay. By the time the Pilgrims arrived in 1620 there were less than 800. In 1631 the Puritans counted less than 500. No organized groups of the Massachuset are known to have survived after 1800. One of the earliest known Massachuset's Native American Chiefs was Chickataubut ('houseafire').

Located right on the ocean and next to Logan Airport in East Boston, WIP was one of my favorite places to visit as a child. It was a one minute walk from my grandfather's three-family home on Lovell Street which intersects with Neptune Road, the access road to WIP. The taking of Wood Island Park is vividly described in the Trust for Public Land

The Sunday trip over there back in the 50's when I was five or six years old was one of my earliest and fondest childhood memories. Grandpa Morse, my namesake, would play the accordion or the fiddle and tell us all some great stories.

Both of my parents were from East Boston. My father from Lovell Street and my mother was from Orient Heights. We would load up the old Chevy and drive over from Medford on the Revere Beach Parkway through Chelsea past the Meridien Street Bridge and take the Chelsea Street Bridge. I remember the route well and still take it today!

Lovell Street had all three-family homes also known as three-deckers and they were very close together and on each side of the street. You would hear the airplane coming in to land long before you saw it. The nose of the plane would appear right over my grandfather's house and it was so low that you could see the rivets holding the plates together on the underside of the plane.

The landing gear was already down and if you stood on a roof, you could hitch a ride in them or hit them with a rock. Back in those days, TV antennas were on roof tops and I was told that the house directly across the street was the one that had the antennae knocked over by a low flying plane and I believed it as the planes appeared to be no more than 20 feet from the rooftops.

There wasn't much of WIP left when I used to play there. I remember tennis courts and a little creek at the end and the runway beginning right there. Logan Airport had been taking the land by eminent domain for many years and on a Friday in April of 1969 the neighbors had a meeting with Massport which was under the leadership of Ed King. Nothing was resolved.

Early in morning on the following Sunday, Massport showed up with a contingent of State Troopers and 36 teams of chainsaw crews. While the residents slept, they sealed off the street and proceeded to cut down about 90% of the beautiful trees.

The sneak attack on a Sunday morning while we were in negotiation outraged the entire neighborhood and was the catalyst for formal citizen organization. It was Pearl Harbor and "Remember the Alamo," combined into one. Eventually a group called Communities Against Runway Expansion (CARE) was formed and they won a court case that banned all Logan expansion for 25 years.

When the issue of a new runway (14/32) resurfaced in 2001, I joined CARE and offered to be the Medford representative. No one was ever selected for this position. The mayors of all the surrounding cities were opposed to the new runway including Mayor Michael McGlynn of Medford, Mayor Michael Capuano of Somerville and Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston. We lost the final battle and the runway opened. The city of Somerville is complaining about all the extra air traffic and has filed a lawsuit. Read Somerville hires Boston law firm to fight Massport over increased air traffic over the city

I will never forget the sneak attack by our own state government and I will never let them forget it.

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To this day, a handful of the majestic elms and oaks defiantly remain on each side of Neptune Road.