Boston Park To Honor Kennedy

BOSTON--City officials and members of the Kennedy family joined yesterday to break ground for a rose garden dedicated to the matriarch of the clan, Rose Kennedy.

"It will be in memory of a woman and a family who have given not only to this city but to this whole country," said Mayor Raymond L. Flynn.

The small waterfront park planned near Faneuil Hall Marketplace is several blocks from the North End house in which Kennedy was born in 1890, said her daughter, Eunice Kennedy Shriver.

"My mother's life will stamp the character of this park," she said. "So it must always serve families old and young."

The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Garden, located on an acre of ground next to Christopher Columbus park, will cost $690,000 and feature a round, polished granite fountain and granite paved areas surrounded by wooden benches.

Several paths radiating from the central fountain will be bordered by pear trees and rose bushes. The garden will be encircled by a Victorian-style ornamental fence.

Also attending the ceremony under a blue-and-white striped tent were Rose Kennedy's grandson Joseph P. Kennedy II, who is a Democratic candidate in the Eighth Congressional District race, and Steven Coyle, director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, which is building the park.

Kennedy, 96, has been in frail health in recent years and lives at the family compound at Hyannis Port. She did not attend.

City officials also dedicated a park yesterday at the former Charlestown Navy Yard, which is being converted to offices and housing.

Shipyard Park Phase 3, a $2 million project, will add a treelined promenade bordering the present Shipyard Park in the Charlestown section, where the historic USS Constitution is berthed. The project also includes development of a 300-foot-long dock that can accommodate water taxi service in Boston Harbor.

The dedication ceremonies were held during Boston's second annual Harborpark Day. Harborpark is the ongoing project to improve the city's waterfront and includes plans to build an eight-mile-long public walkway and park land along the harbor.