When Auston Harris looked out on the newly finished garden and open space on Magnolia Street last week, he recalled the early days of the effort when he was a teen-ager who joined with other volunteers to dig out polluted soil on the site and level off the ground by hand.

He remembers long days with a shovel and pickaxe driven by a community vision for the space that at the time was not sure to come true.
Now 26, Harris and his neighbors in the Magnolia and Alexander Street area can enjoy the fruits of their labor—a first-class garden and open space on a corner that was once derelict and overgrown.

“When I started it was really just dirt here,” he said during a speaking program at a ribbon cutting ceremony on Sept. 28. “It’s wild now to see it so green and full of life. It’s just so healthy for the community to have space to reflect and to grow their own food so they don’t have to go to the store to buy all their produce. Being in the hands of community in Roxbury and Dorchester is powerful.”

Auston Harris cuts the ribbon on the Magnolia Gardens on Sept. 28, as neighbors and officials look on. Seth Daniel photos

It took 15 years to transform the lot into an assortment of garden plots, places to sit, a small play area, a gathering space, water access for gardening, walking areas, and a community mural on the building wall that faces the open space. A remnant from the past is a large oak tree that fills out the community space with shade, while the rest of the garden is organized in terraces that create the many “nooks” that make the small space feel much larger.

It had a soft opening in June, but was formally dedicated last Thursday, with long-time neighbors thanking the various helpers who pitched in over time, including the Mayor’s Office of Housing (MOH), the Fairmount Greenway Task Force, COG Design, Dudley Neighbors Inc., the Community Preservation Fund, and a host of others.

Ricky Guerra, a neighbor who has volunteered on the project, said the effort started when the city had an ‘adopt a lot’ program before the real estate market took off and there was open land sitting dormant. The neighbors had first identified a lot farther up Magnolia, but later settled on the the corner of Magnolia and Lebanon Streets.

Angela Paige Cook and Joe Cook, of Roxbury, came over to visit the finished product.

“It ended up being the best choice,” she said.

“Here we are 15 years later, and this project is particularly important to me as a resident and a person of color,” Guerra continued. “As people of color, our connection to the land has been severed for so long with urbanization, so community spaces like this where people can grow food are important.”

She added that visioning meetings were truly multi-generational over several years, so the final product represents many different ideas from a variety of people. She offered specific thanks to the late Jim Mahoney, who formerly worked for the city and came on as a volunteer after retirement to carry the project over the finish line. He passed away in January 2022, and there is a bench in the Magnolia Garden dedicated to him.