Ordway Park Fund

Please Help Insure Ordway Park's Future

This bit of natural woodland is Newton's only independent small neighborhood park. Its extensive array of trees and shrub species include American chestnut, American beech, dogwood, hemlock, hickory, maple, oak, pine, spruce, yellowwood, andromeda, azalea, box, euonymus, rhododendron, spirea, and yew. It is owned and maintained by the Newton Conservators. Please consider making a donation to the Ordway Park Fund.

The Ordway Park Fund

The goal of the Ordway Park Fund is to create a fund of $50,000 in endowment, the interest from which will be used exclusively for the maintenance and improvement of Ordway Park. A generous donor has already promised to match the first $10,000 raised for the fund.

The Ordway Park Fund can also offer a number of "naming opportunities" for non-endowment donations made specifically for early improvements such as benches, birdbaths, entrance markers, and understory trees.

Donations may be made by check or by transfer of securities. Checks should be made out to

The Newton Conservators (The Ordway Park Fund)

and mailed to

The Newton Conservators
PO Box 590011
Newton Centre, MA 02459

The Newton Conservators is a registered non-profit organizaiton and all donations to it as the administrator of the Ordway Park Fund are tax deductible.

Ordway Park Renewal

Ordway Park's Beginnings

The Newton Conservators, a non-profit organization, has for decades worked successfully to preserve several hundred acres of open space in Newton. One of these open spaces, owned and maintained by the Conservators, is Ordway Park in Newton Centre, located at the corner of Grant Avenue and Everett Street.

Originally part of the woodland garden of the Ordway family home at 111 Gibbs Street, Ordway Park's half-acre hillside was crossed by narrow winding paths and planted with a variety of trees and shrubs, many chosen for their attraction for birds and butterflies. Since 1971, when it was left to the Newton Conservators in the will of Priscilla Ordway, the Park was maintained by volunteers. In 1997 the Directors of the Conservators hired a professional arborist to prune the trees and remove those that had become hazards. More recently a general plan for the maintenance of the Park has been adopted and a landscaper engaged to maintain simple paths and control the intrusion of maple saplings. The Conservators Board has formally asked the city to install a curbing to stop the erosion along Grant Avenue.

Ordway Park's Future

An Ordway Park neighbor recently contacted the Conservators to talk about revitalizing the Park. In response, the Board of Directors of the Conservators voted to establish an Ordway Park Fund to permanently endow ongoing maintenance and improvement. A generous offer has been made to match the first $10,000 raised for the Ordway Park Fund.

As a result of neighborhood enthusiasm, several steps have been completed. A map identifying major trees in the Park has been created. Soil tests and a survey of current use of the Park have been completed. A landscape architect has provided an analysis of present conditions and guidelines for improvement of the Park, such as improved signage, entrance markers, possible benches, better delineation of the edges of the Park, and the introduction of understory flowering shrubs and native groundcover.

A neighborhood meeting was held in October 2003 to discuss the future of Ordway Park.