NEWBURYPORT — City officials will host their first public meeting next week to get ideas for renovation of Brown Square.
Brown Square is slated for an estimated $500,000 face-lift, depending on funding from grants, to make the centrally located site a more prominent gathering place for residents. Officials are asking residents with ideas to present them at the meeting, planned for 7 p.m. Wednesday in Newburyport Public Library's program room.
"We just want to have a forum for anyone who is interested to have a conversation," said Geordie Vining, the city's senior project manager.
Brown Square is across the street from City Hall on Pleasant Street, extending from Green Street to Titcomb Street. Its focal point is a large statue of William Lloyd Garrison, a famous abolitionist who was born in Newburyport in 1805 and was dubbed "The Liberator."
Vining said with the improvement of other public spaces in the city and the recent completion of City Hall's exterior, the desire to renovate the square has grown. He said the work will include fixing deteriorated walkways, clearing dying trees and overgrown shrubs, and planting new trees and shrubs.
Initial funding of $30,000 for creating concept plans comes from the Gayden W. Morrill Charitable Foundation, a foundation established by the former Newburyport mayor's family, which provides money each year for capital improvement projects for city parks and public spaces.
Halvorson Design Partnership, a landscape architecture firm, is doing the initial renovation plan.
Other funding will come from grants, Vining said, adding that the city's Planning Office has applied for and earned millions of dollars in grant money from city, regional and national organizations. "Those funds will go to other projects, if we don't apply for our own projects," he said.
Vining also said there should be no worry that the money for the renovation project will come from the city's budget.
"It has nothing to do with the city's operational budget," he said.
The history of the square itself is rich.
Brown Square is named after Moses Brown, who died in 1827. Brown was the largest landowner in the city, a shipbuilder and a manufacturer, according to a historic narrative on the Garrison Inn's Web site. The inn, which sits on the square and was called the Brown Square House, was Brown's former home.
Brown was born in 1742 and, among other things, is known for purchasing the land at the foot of Green Street where he started New England Rum, a distillery, according the inn's site. The land there now is known as Brown's Wharf.
In the late 1800s, after the square sat vacant for about 100 years, Vining said the city wanted a fountain or statue erected on the land. Leaders commissioned local artist David M. French to make the statue, and it's been a "focal point of the park for a century," Vining said.
Sometime in the 1900s, Vining said war memorials and flags were added to the park.
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