Playground Entrance Gate Designed As Fr. McAleer Memorial-This Day in Norwood History-April 25, 1941

Gordon Woodberry Designs Entrance Distinguished For Beauty and Simplicity

Showing selectmen plans for a beautiful entrance to the Father McAleer playground, the special Father McAleer memorial committee expressed the hope on Tuesday night that the dedication of the memorial might be possible by May 26th. That date would have been the thirteenth anniversary of the Rev Robert E. McAleers’ ordination into the priesthood.

The memorial plan was designed by Gordon Woodberry, who gave his services as the architect. It provides for an entrance to the playground constructed of the same stone as used in the Municipal Building. Eight-foot entrance posts are flanked by four-foot walls constructed on a curve to cradle grass plots. The wall and opening will cover a forty-foot distance.

A bronze plaque, eighteen by twenty-four inches, and placed on one of the entrance posts will explain the purpose of the memorial, a tribute to one who notably aided the youth of Norwood. Plans also showed suitable planting of two Japanese yews in the grass plots, and of two American elms to frame the entrance. Chairman Coleman Coyne and Anthony Martino asked that the town cement the entrance area.

The committee now him over $1500 for the memorial purposes. Contractors secured construction information last evening and their bids will be called in within a week. With the construction period placed at two weeks, committee members hope that the dedication may be arranged for May 25th.

Committee members also suggested that the town erect a fence at the field. Acton on this request was deferred, but selectmen indicated that the cementing of the area very possibly could go forward under WPA work.

Editorial:

FITTING MEMORIAL

The Father McAleer Memorial committee is to be congratulated on its selection of a design for the playground memorial.

The proposed tribute is not alone beautiful, but is as well a distinct asset to town property. It was conceived by Gordon Woodberry, landscape architect, who donated his services to the project.

The memorial will provide entrance gates to the Father McAleer playground, formerly known as White Mikes. The gate, with eight-foot posts flanked by four-foot walls, will be constructed of the same stone used in the Municipal Building.

Attractive plantings will enhance its beauty. The sketch of the entrance predicts a thing of beauty and simplicity, a truly fitting memorial.

The playground has always appeared as one of the town’s more desolate spots.

It has been a wilderness stretching out from the top of Vernon Street. The entrance, imposing, simple, beautiful, will transform this prospect into a location to be proud of.

Directly fronting Vernon Street, it will properly announce what may be one of the town’s best play areas. Nothing more beautiful nor more enhancing could have been selected as the Father McAleer Memorial.

And the memorial built by the donations of hundreds of people collected through the devotion of a faithful committee, designed by Mr. Woodberry at no charge, should prove an incentive to the town. For its character and purpose as well as its very beauty demands that as work on the playground goes forward, it does so in keeping with the spirit of the memorial gate and in tune with its high standard of beauty.

(All articles were originally published in the Norwood Messenger unless otherwise noted)