[3] DCR has restored a salt marsh area and planted native trees and shrubs.

The area now attracts an increased variety of birds to the habitat, including snowy egrets and great blue herons.

[5] It was constructed on the sites of a former drive-in theater (the Neponset Drive-in Theater) and an adjacent landfill (the Hallet Street dump) purchased in 1984 and 1973, respectively, by the Massachusetts Metropolitan District Commission (now the Department of Conservation and Recreation).

[8] The park was dedicated in 2000 by then Massachusetts Governor Paul Cellucci,[9] and opened to the public in 2001.

Following the canonization of Pope John Paul II, the park was officially redesignated as the "Saint Pope John Paul II Park", in a bill signed by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker in 2019.