Malden River Festival Saturday, June 19
Public Invited to Explore New River’s Edge Park
The new park on the Malden River, part of the River’s Edge development that transformed a once polluted area.
187 tons of tires were removed from the site. Photos courtesy Preotle, Lane, and Associates.
– Allison Goldsberry
On Saturday, June 19 the public is being invited to check out the new green space along the Malden River known as River’s Edge Park.
Tri-City Community Action Program (Tri-CAP) has organized a Malden River Festival with a free BBQ, games, face-painting, live performances by local groups, informational tables, summer activity demonstrations, and more.
The festival is free and open to the public and will run from 11:00AM-3:00PM. River’s Edge Park is located on River’s Edge Drive/Commercial Street in Medford between Wellington T Station and Medford Street.
The park sits on land that was once very heavily polluted and piled with junk. Now, more than ten years after Medford, Malden, and Everett decided to do something with shared brown field land on the banks of the Malden River, the old industrial site is transforming into a mixed use development with a park, a boathouse, office buildings, and housing.
Gone are 350 tons of rubber and tires, even an old, 270-foot, 100-ton partially submerged barge stuck into the riverbank. Gone is the old moniker, Telecom City.
In their place are a brand new park and a boathouse for the Tufts crew teams, a new office building, and a building with luxury apartments.
And leading to it all is a new road, not too long ago called Corporation Way, but now referred to as River’s Edge Drive.
According to Preotle, Lane, & Associates’ Harry Bovee, developer John Preotle has spent more than $1 million cleaning up the site, removing 800 tons of trash, including old appliances, abandoned cars, and 175 tons of rubber left over from an old shoe factory. Ten thousand shrubs, forty benches, and over 100 trees have been added to form ten acres of public green space along the river.
For more information about the development, visit RiversEdgeMA.com.