Bartlet Mall Restoration Project

An FAQ regarding funding of the Bartlet Mall Restoration Project may be found here.

The Bartlet Mall, located on Newburyport’s historic High Street, is the City’s original town common. While there are many historical sites in Newburyport, few look as identical as they did back in the 1600s. The Bartlet Mall was once a watering hole for livestock, housed a rope walk, and provided a training ground for Revolutionary war militia. It remains one of Newburyport’s major public spaces, hosting many annual community events and providing a place for recreation throughout the year.

The central water feature of the Bartlet Mall is an old kettle hole that, while once connected to an inlet and outlet of fresh water, was cut off from refreshment in 1805 when the Superior courthouse was constructed. Both the Courthouse and the Mall are listed on the National Register. The pond has lain stagnant for over 200 years, accumulating heavy metals, cyanobacteria and other toxins, and while City stakeholders have tried repeatedly to remediate it, they have never quite succeeded. Even the formidable landscape architect Charles Eliot provided his input to City leaders in the early 1900s, recommending a lush line of high-pruned Elms, precisely-angled lawn slopes, a grand promenade, a protective edge around the pond, and a fountain to circulate water, but his full vision was never realized. In more recent years, attempts have been made to revive the pond including installation of a new fountain with three times the aeration and installation of a reverse osmosis system, but these attempts failed due to the volume of toxins in the pond.

In 2021, the city hired an engineering team of geotechnical, environmental, and civil engineers and water quality specialists to assist the City's efforts to improve the water quality at the pond and provide improved resiliency and a better recreational space for public use. Investigations showed that impacted sediment was present at all depths beneath the pond, and that pond water is contained by low-permeability materials that prevent it from draining. They also confirmed the pond is not fed by fresh water, resulting in eutrophic condition and causing harmful algal blooms that pose a health risk to humans and wildlife. They recommend encapsulating the impacted sediment with an impermeable liner system to prevent harmful elements of the impacted sediment from entering the water column.

Based on these recommendations, the process by which the City intends to proceed with this project includes:         

• Dewatering the pond
• Drilling a bedrock well and installing a water quality system, including a pump shed, to house equipment to keep the water circulating and aerated
• Installing a liner system to encapsulate the impacted sediment, including a geogrid layer to provide structural support, a high‐density polyethylene (HDPE) layer, and 6” of armor stone and benthic sand to provide habitat and facilitate maintenance
• Installing plantings to improve habitat
• Restoring the historic central fountain
• Installing a dock to support a future boating recreation program
• Installing a walkway surrounding the pond 6” higher than existing in order to maintain the depth of the water, and renovating the other walkways throughout the park
• Potentially installing a granite perimeter around the pond, as Charles Eliot intended, to protect the water’s edge, provide seating, and inscribe the important history of the park (this is an add alternate)

Between 2022-23, the City obtained 10 different local, state and federal approvals as well as private donations and CPC funding to pay for improvements. Unfortunately, the January 2024 bids for the project came in higher than the dollars allocated and the project was forced to be put on pause. This is a complex project with many pieces that must be carefully orchestrated. This singular water quality problem demands a unique solution, and there is no precedent locally or nationally for the particular combination of challenges on this site. For the first time in the last 200 years, we see a path toward bringing life back to this important historical and recreational asset for our City. It is the City's hope to maintain the momentum built over the past two years and finally get this important project completed and once again realize the Bartlet Mall as it could be once again: a central gathering space where community is built, history is celebrated, and people can enjoy paddle boating, ice skating and playing in our most historic park. 

While awaiting funding for the Frog Pond project, in 2024, the City was able to construct its first universally-accessible playground at the northwest corner of the park after being awarded a LWCF grant in 2021. This important feature has greatly increased the number of visitors to the park.

This project will provide many important benefits to the community and the environment including:

• Improving environmental sensitivity and enhancement of habitat: in addition to planting new canopy trees, this project features other climate resiliency and environmental benefits. Over 1,000 new native plants are proposed within the park to support habitat for wildlife. The proposed liner and water quality system will encapsulate toxic heavy metals and other impacted sediments and prevent them from continually polluting the pond water, thereby protecting wildlife. The playground project at the NW corner of the park reduced impervious surfaces by roughly 5,000 sf by replacing asphalt with green space, and stabilized and planted an existing slope, thereby reducing runoff into the pond.
• Increasing the availability of water-based recreation and investing in economically- and age-diverse neighborhoods by providing varied outdoor recreational opportunities adjacent to two Environmental Justice neighborhoods where at least 25% of households have a median household income of 65% or less than the state median household income. This area of the City is characterized as being more urban, with a higher density of buildings and a lower density of green space. This 7-acre site is a welcome respite for the neighborhood and is occupied with people at all times of the year who enjoy strolling, running, dog walking, ice skating, and playing at the park, and attending various community and cultural events.
• Improving ADA access throughout the park: as an extension of prior work to install the City’s first universally-accessible playground, this project proposes to resurface walkways throughout the park using accessible materials and install a handrail at the northwest access point.