About

We are the Friends of Herter Park (FoHP) - a group of volunteers dedicated to reactivating the public spaces and the amphitheater in the Christian A. Herter Park along the Charles River in Allston, MA. We are actively forming partnerships with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Charles River Conservancy, the community, and other public and private neighborhood stakeholders.

FoHP started as a group of dedicated individuals volunteering their time to revitalize the Herter Park Amphitheater, once a wonderful community asset, but unused since 2008, when the Publick Theater moved indoors. Orfeo Group used the site intermittently for a few performances shortly thereafter, with no electricity. In the fall of 2015, FoHP began to formally organize around the mission to restore and revitalize the Amphitheater and set about to determine a course of action. We are now an approved 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

The group developed a phased approached for achieving its mission, starting with small repairs & site clean up. Getting the site to a safe, usable condition was priority one. Since 2015, we have utilized over 500 volunteers and over 1,000 man hours cleaning and restoring the site. Organized by the Charles River Conservancy, these clean-up days see everything from raking, pruning & trimming, to painting, sanding, stage repair & bench replacement.

Our first mini-season (2017) consisted of a handful of shows, run completely off of generators! Our inaugural kick-off show was held on July 15, 2017 & was covered by the Boston Globe. A successful grant application from the Harvard Allston Public Realm Flex Fund allowed us to electrify the site, complete with stage lighting and pathway lights. We held our lighing ceremony on We held an official ribbon cutting ceremony on May 17, 2018, attended by Rep. Michael Moran, Rep. Kevin Honan, and DCR Commissioner Leo Roy, who even sang a solo!

This project would not be possible without the generous donations of the Harvard-Allston Public Realm Flex Fund, the Lawrence & Lillian Solomon Foundation, the Ciccolo Family Foundation, Greater Greener Boston, as well as State Representative Michael Moran who successfully lobbied for funding for the Amphitheater in the FY18 fiscal budget.