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Fully bloomed flower beds and meticulously landscaped yards frame the brightly colored houses — from bubblegum pink to sky blue — on the small section of State Street near Willis and Campbell.
This block wasn’t always as vibrant as it is today. When many residents moved in, the homes needed major renovations and maintenance. What’s happened in the last few years has been a grassroots renaissance, and an example of New Bedford neighbors lending a helping hand.
“My husband bought the house in 2000, but it was uninhabitable,” says Stacie Hess, the owner of a bright pink Federal home with Victorian accents on State Street. “It was going to be condemned.”
Christopher Stark, a tenant of the block’s blue Second Empire building, previously occupied by New Bedford’s longest-serving mayor Charles S. Ashley, experienced similar difficulties when he first moved in 15 years ago. “The building had been abandoned for a long time,” he said.
Older residents, like Bernadette Muldoon and her brother, struggled to keep up with the extensive needs of aging mid-19th century homes.
According to neighbors, Stark is largely to thank for sparking the neighborhood’s transition. He began beautifying his own space, hacking away the vines and weeds in his own yard. Then he asked his landlord if he could start a garden. “I said to the landlord, ‘Do you care if I go for it?’ And he goes, ‘Do whatever you want.’”
It wasn’t long before Stark began tending to his neighbors’ properties as well.
“He was like, ‘Can I use your hose in exchange for, I’ll water your [lawn]?’” said Hess. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, totally.’” Stark continued taking on more and more projects, and now Hess’ lawn is full of blossoming flowers and plants that make the whole yard feel lively.
“When he stopped working, it’s like he just started making other things more beautiful,” said Hess. Stark, a now-retired makeup artist, has turned his creative talents on a new subject in his retirement.
Stark is now maintaining eight properties, including his own, in this Acushnet Heights neighborhood. For years he gardened and weeded without payment. Although money was never the goal, Stark has since turned his gardening skills into “almost like a little business,” he said. Neighbors and other property owners now pay him to tend to their yards.
“Truth be told, if Bernadette couldn’t pay me, I’d still do it,” Stark said.
“He’s so caring and thoughtful that it overflows,” said Hess. “He just has beautified the whole street.”
“He extends himself to make such an impact on the neighborhood, and in a thoughtful way — in a creative way. He’s so kind, from the heart,” said Muldoon, who has lived in the neighborhood for decades.
The yard of Muldoon’s Victorian cottage was one of the first that Stark began caring for. First he potted the odd plant for his neighbor. “Then I started mowing her lawn, and then she let me clean up underneath a holly tree and I made a garden under there.”
From there the goodness has spread like a weed. And the yard of Muldoon’s mint green house has sprouted into a spirited garden of black-eyed susans, tulips, and morning glories. “People love it,” Muldoon said. “People walk by in the neighborhood and they’re like, ‘Oh my god, look at this place!’”
Both Hess and Muldoon said the joy Stark brought to the community inspired them to paint their houses such cheerful colors.
And that joy has inspired other neighbors as well. Three years ago, the building next-door to Stark sold. When the new owner arrived, he asked Stark for his help sprucing up the area.
“The previous owners had really done nothing to the property,” Stark recalled. “And [the new owner] said to me, ‘I can’t own this building next to this and look like this’… So I started doing that building.”
The neighborhood now connects through more than gardening and cheerful coats of paint. Whether it’s carrying in groceries or offering a ride to work, members of the community show up for each other whenever possible.
“It’s kind of nice when you have neighbors that … close by, so if you need anything,” you can reach out, Muldoon said.
“It’s kind of old-fashioned in that way,” said Hess.
Although he never planned on living in such a one-of-a-kind New Bedford community, nor did he plan on making such an impact on it, Stark — along with his neighbors — is incredibly happy about the way their story has played out.
“Giving and doing for others is probably the most satisfying way to feel better about yourself,” said Stark. “If I’m injecting a little beauty into one little small microcosm in the world, I’m down.”
Samantha Medeiros is a summer intern with the New Bedford Light, as part of the South Coast Internship designed for local students. Email Samantha at smedeiros@newbedfordlight.org.
