Revere to celebrate Fitzhenry Dog Park, new public spaces in revitalized corridor

A long-used patch of grass in Fitzhenry Square was set to become an official dog park, giving Ward Two’s high-energy dogs a dedicated place to run instead of an improvised neighborhood stop. The ribbon cutting at Fitzhenry Dog Park was scheduled for Friday, May 8, from 10 a.m. to noon at 24 Fitzhenry Square, near Atlas Auto Body, and the city planned to pair it with visits to Flaherty Square and the Shirley Avenue pocket park.

For dog owners, the shift mattered because Fitzhenry was no longer being treated as a make-do corner of lawn. City planning materials said construction on Fitzhenry Square began on October 1, 2025, and described the project as a redesign of an informal dog park into an official one. That is the difference between a place a dog happens to use and a space the city has actually claimed for public recreation.

The project also carried real neighborhood weight. Revere said Fitzhenry Dog Park was one of three new parks in the Shirley Avenue neighborhood, alongside the 69 Shirley Ave. forest pocket park and Flaherty Square. A July 2025 Department of Planning and Community Development newsletter said the Shirley Avenue projects had reached key milestones, with both 69 Shirley Avenue and Flaherty Square expected to be completed by the end of 2025. The city identified Worcester-based JAM Corporation as the contractor on at least some of the work.

The dog park’s roots went back further than the construction timeline. In October 2024, the Revere Journal reported that Ward Two residents had taken their dogs to the site for years and that the city was committing “upwards of $200,000” in Community Development Block Grant funding to turn the long-discussed space into an official dog park. That history helps explain why the project drew so much attention: it was not a brand-new idea, but the formal finish line for something neighbors had already been using.

A Shirley Avenue project page said the effort benefited from widespread community involvement and grassroots leadership, underscoring that the park was not only a city upgrade but a neighborhood push that made it to the ribbon-cutting stage. With Fitzhenry Dog Park joining the corridor’s other new public spaces, Revere was marking more than a single amenity. It was putting a visible stamp on a stretch of Shirley Avenue that now has more room for dogs, more room for residents, and a stronger case as a place people actually gather.