Back in the comments to Adam’s post on the Chestnut Hill Square facade, Mike Striar wrote that the developer should at least put up a plaque to remember the victims of the fatal fire. (Newton Gal thought the entire site should have been made a memorial park.) They have done a little better than put up a plaque.
They are installing what appears to be a little water feature with the names of the fire victims. It’s in a tiny pocket park of to-be-determined value on the Florence Street side in a bit of the lot that isn’t commercially usable.
Oddly (but predictably), the park is not accessible from the development itself. You have to come out to the sidewalk from one of the (only) two outlets and then over to the park.
But it is a memorial. In a landscaped little park.
Very nice. I’m glad to see it.
America has gone Memorial Crazy. Someone dies somewhere and that place needs to become a memorial and reminder of death and bad things so we can wallow forever more.
How about we honor our public servants who died in the line of duty with a centralized Memorial at Town Hall? Let’s pull ourselves back from this roadside memorial mindset that has gripped our country since 9/11. We don’t need death markers ever where someone falls.
Considering what happened there, I find the memorial completely appropriate from the folks who redeveloped the space. Whatever you think of the new development, you at least know someone was thinking of this. Those who come upon it will learn or be reminded of a little piece of history from where they are standing. Think of the Hotel Vendome memorial in the Back Bay. I love the idea of coming upon that in the spot near where it happened.
What Doug said.
Strange that it can’t be accessed while in the development!
The placement of the memorial in a quiet place out of the way of the bustle of a commercial area seems very appropriate. Maybe it’s just me, but if it were a member of my family who was being memorialized, I’d rather it be in a more peaceful place than in a shopping mall. From the picture, it appears that the developer did a nice job.
I wondered about the placement too, but I’ll have to reserve judgment until such time as I make it out that way.
Sean, can you fix the spelling of memorial in your title?
I’m thankful the victims of that tragic fire will be memorialized in this way. I hope it helps bring some peace to the relatives of those victims, and to the survivors of the fire as well. While too many lives were lost that day, many more lives have been saved from the lessons learned from the fire. Tremendous credit is due Ruth Balser, who recognized something needed to be done in order to prevent similar tragedies, and championed legislation to require fire suppression systems in commercial buildings.
Instead of cemeteries lets just bury everyone where they drop dead from now on.