Eddie Taylor looks backed over the crowd of more than two dozen to tell them that this effort is just the start.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — If he were here today, Rev. Willard Durant may not have liked having a park named in his honor.

But, man, he'd have loved the spirit that made it happen.

The Parks Commission on Wednesday approved renaming Pitt Park on Columbus Avenue to the Rosemary and Rev. Willard Durant Park.

 

Dozens of residents filled the City Council Chambers in favor of the change at the Parks Commission hearing, saying the effort is much more than a name.

 

"This is bigger than the park name. This is sincerely the beginning of reigniting this fuse," said Eddie Taylor, who started the Man Up organization to bring positive change to the city. 

 

"One of the big motivations for me personally in making this happen was everybody in this room. It was to show all of you what we could do." 

 

The first initiative of the organization, which began some three years ago, to honor the longtime community organizers, is just the first step in the community pooling its energies together to make a better world. 

 

"It is really sometimes that simple. This was about a positive movement that we, not me, we were able to create," Taylor said. "This is not some organization that I created, this is about a movement. This is a mentality."

 

The sense of community is exactly what Durant and his wife created when they were alive. The two lived next door to the park and were directors of the Christian Center for 25 years. Durant was pastor at AME Price Memorial Church for 33 years.

 

"I knew the Durants coming out of college, they welcomed me into their home, we had good conversation. They inspired me," said Vicki Kane, chairman of the West Side Neighborhood Initiative. "They made our neighborhood the best to live in."

 

For generations of families in the West Side, the couple was seen as the "matriarch and patriarch" of the community. 

 

"If you ever needed a friend, they were the ones ... I came here in 1955 and they took me as family. My husband was like a brother to him. And, he, Rev. Willard Durant, is the reason I an a reverend today," said the Rev. Louise Williamson. "The ones who are left behind are a family."

 

Vanessa Slaughter met the Durants some 20 years ago. They gave her her first job and allowed her to start a dance program at the Christian Center. Today, she and husband run a literacy program at the park. The park also serves as a place for the community to come together, just as the Durants brought the community together.

 

"There is so much division and we need to have a place to come together," Slaughter said, adding that the park is the core around which to start addressing needs in the community. "They had the foundation and the love and the compassion that our kids are lacking." 

 

Marjorie Cohan met the Durants some 35 years ago and said the reverend "was a humble man who would never have put up with this." But the effort was something Durant could be proud of, because it brought the community together.

 

"The most important thing he did is get this group of guys ... I think he would be so proud of you guys and the work you are doing," Cohan said.

 

The efforts to rename the park was fully supported by the city. There was so much support at the hearing and no opposition that the Parks Commission opted to vote in favor at the hearing rather than wait until the next meeting to vote, as was the plan.

 

"There is so much more than just a name change that they have going for this park," said City Council President Melissa Mazzeo, who voiced support from the whole City Council for the effort. "This could become a model for other parks."

 

City Councilors Kathleen Amuso and John Krol both spoke in favor of the change. 

 

"They changed lives of people all over America," Krol said. "They were mentors of mine in the short years that I knew them." 

 

The City Council previously called for the name change to be coupled with a renovation of the park to make it worthy of the Durant name. That was echoed by many of those who spoke at Wednesday's hearing. 

 

Pitt Park, established by the city in 1910, takes its name from the same source as the city, that of British nobleman and former Prime Minister William Pitt (the Elder), a man that as Taylor points out, "never even visited this country."

 

"For many years the Durants lived right next door to Pitt Park and were an inspiration to a generation of children," Mayor Daniel Bianchi said.