A rendering of the proposed new park at the corner of Columbus Ave. and West Canton St.
Alan Rohan Crite was a South End artist and neighborhood icon whose work has been widely exhibited and well received. Although he is best known for his religious illustrations, his early paintings depicted daily life among Boston’s African American community in the 1930s and 40s. He considered himself a biographer of the urban experience, recording what he saw, and developing a series of so-called “neighborhood paintings,” in which he presented black Bostonians “in an ordinary light, persons enjoying the usual pleasures of life with its mixtures of both sorrow and joys.”
Crite lived on Columbus Avenue in the South End and studied at Boston University, the Massachusetts School of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts School, and Harvard University. He died in 2007 at age 97.
Crite was known to neighbors throughout the South End. To this day, many residents warmly recall seeing him with his sketch pad in hand and a greeting for all. The Boston Globe referred to him as the “Granddaddy of the Boston Art Scene” and the “Dean of African-American Artists in New England.” His works are displayed in major American institutions including the Smithsonian, the Phillips Collection, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Boston Atheneum, and the Boston Public Library.
In 2017, a group of neighbors from the Ellis Neighborhood Association developed a plan to transform a long-neglected property at the corner of Columbus Avenue and West Canton Street, a few doors from Crite’s homestead, into a neighborhood park. Their mission was twofold: to create a welcoming green space and to memorialize Crite’s life and work.
As the Crite Park revitalization continues, residents from the South End and South Boston have joined to form the Friends of Crite Park Corp., an all-volunteer nonprofit organization working to make the new park a reality. They have already engaged a landscape architect, who, with survey input, created a design for the park that has received an overwhelmingly positive community response. They are now fundraising for construction of the park, a maintenance fund, and support for a host of planned community events that will promote the significance of Crite’s contributions to the art world and to the South End.
For information or to donate, visit ellisneighborhood.org/critepark.html and “like” Crite Park on Facebook. Email Critepark@gmail.com to receive park updates or to volunteer.