The Halloween Crowd on Lincoln Street Will Be Standing in the Next Construction Zone

Where will the costumed kids be on Saturday afternoon, October 24? Newton's citywide Halloween Party is coming to Newton Highlands this year. Trick-or-treating runs along Lincoln Street, Newton's own Circus Complex takes over Hyde Field, and Big Joe the Storyteller tells ghost stories at the Linda Plaut Arts & Culture Center at the Brigham House. It runs from 2 to 5:30 p.m. That's one stretch of sidewalk, from Walnut Street up toward Hartford. If the City follows its working group's recommendations, it's also the stretch Newton plans to rebuild first.

The Halloween Party isn't the only Highlands event on the calendar this month. On Thursday, October 8, the City holds a Phase I Community Meeting for the Newton Highlands Village Enhancement Project. As of this week, the City's project page lists only the date, with no time, venue or agenda. Check back there before you go. The meeting is about a plan that has shrunk a great deal over the past year.

A $14 million concept became a corner and a row of streetlights

In October 2025, the City showed the Public Facilities Committee a preferred concept that would have turned Lincoln Street into a raised shared street from Walnut to Columbus. It also included pedestrian changes along Walnut Street and work at the Fountain Grove fountain. The rough construction estimate for that broader concept was $14.08 million.

Then the City Council asked for a second opinion. The mayor appointed a working group in December 2025: Ward Councilor Martha Bixby, business owner Karl O'Hara, Area Council member Srdjan Nedeljkovic and former Ward 6 Councilor Alan Lobovits. It met five times between January and March 2026. Its March 31 report recommended keeping the project alive but splitting it in two. Safety work comes first, and the full build-out waits until someone finds the money. Phase 1 has five pieces, built in this order:

1. Rodney Barker Square, where Lincoln meets Hartford: curb extensions, a narrower intersection, a raised table, a flashing-beacon crosswalk, and pavers replacing the plaza's old bricks to improve accessibility.
2. New lighting on Lincoln Street between Walnut and Columbus, installed at the same time as the square's redesign and ahead of any full reconstruction of the street.
3. Walnut and Floral, between O'Hara's and the former service station, with curb extensions, a median refuge and another flashing beacon.
4. Lincoln and Bowdoin, with curb extensions and a raised table.
5. Walnut and Station Avenue, with a curb extension that shortens the crossing.

The full raised shared street isn't on that list. Lincoln Street gets better lighting and two rebuilt intersections now. A full rebuild of the roadway sits in Phase 2, and Phase 2 has no funding yet.

The City's April 8 presentation put near-term construction at $3,385,000, roughly a quarter of the earlier concept. That's an estimate, not money in hand. The working group's own report gives a $3.5 million preliminary figure plus engineering in one place and about $3 million in its summary. That same day, the Public Facilities Committee straw-voted unanimously to have the administration and DPW keep designing Phase 1 with the consultants, then held the item. It didn't appropriate construction funds.

Why the first dollars land at Rodney Barker Square

The square at Lincoln and Hartford was named in 2012 for Rodney Barker. The Area Council's letter supporting the dedication describes him as a Highlands resident of about 50 years who helped found the neighborhood council and served on the Board of Aldermen, the School Committee and the Historical Commission. Don't confuse it with the green at Lincoln and Walnut. City and Area Council records call that one Officer English Garden, and the City's Artful Pianos page labels the spot "Officer English Park/O'Hara Square."

The working group ranked Barker Square first. It's also the one piece where the report promises a second round of public input on what the place will look and feel like:

"Public meetings will be scheduled to review the new intersection design and subsequently to obtain input on the quality of the amenities to be included in the plaza, such as benches, trees, and pavement in the plaza."

The timeline has moved quickly since then. At the Area Council's September 3 meeting, Chief Community Services Officer John Rice said consultants would show Barker Square design options to the working group on September 8, followed by a full community meeting. Construction is expected in 2027. Those minutes are still marked as drafts, and 2027 is an expectation, not a contract date.

The decisions left are the ones you'd notice on a walk

Since the project now starts with one plaza and a set of streetlights, most of the open questions are small, physical things you'd notice walking past. According to the Area Council's draft August 6 minutes, Area Councilor Srdjan Nedeljkovic reported on the working group's design preferences for Barker Square, which are meant to guide the consultants:

• keeping as many of the existing trees as possible
• a smooth brick surface rather than stamped concrete, even though brick costs about three times as much
• more benches and seating, plus lighting in the plaza
• keeping the parking meters
• whether to remove the driveway that crosses the square, which would cost spaces in the municipal lot and require negotiating with the building's owner

A meeting attendee raised a concern that $3.5 million might not cover everything people want. In September, members weighed narrower crossings and limits on U-turns against how fire trucks need to turn, and talked about the proposed median and possible speed tables.

Some arguments are older than the phased plan. At a November 2024 community meeting, attendees objected to changes around the fountain, to removing right-turn lanes and to moving parking. The working group noted "broad support in the community" for keeping the right-turn lane from Lincoln onto Walnut. It also flagged an accessibility problem with the sidewalk slope at Officer English Garden and said more design work and public input are needed. Those questions belong to Phase 2, so October's meeting probably won't settle them.

Walking the block on October 24

Here's what's open along the trick-or-treat route this fall, going from Walnut Street up Lincoln:

• O'Hara's Food & Spirits, 1185 Walnut Street, an Irish pub the O'Hara family has run in the Highlands since 1985.
• Lakon Paris Patisserie, 1169 Walnut Street, with its October menu now out.
• Grape Leaf Mediterranean Grille, 6 Lincoln Street.
• Knot & Purl, 17 Lincoln Street, second floor, with activities on its schedule through October 2026.
• The Walnut Market, 20 Lincoln Street, owned by Matt Santarpio since January 2020.
• Cacao, 23 Lincoln Street.
• Buttonwood, 51 Lincoln Street, an independently owned restaurant serving dinner.

Indulge! is part of the same village story. It marked 35 years at Village Day on June 14. Cacao, Lakon and The Walnut Market all had booths that day too. One closure: Scafidi Bros. Market & Deli at 1134 Beacon Street closed in February, less than a year after opening.

On party day, the inflatable/corn maze at Hyde Field is meant for ages 2 and up. Famili Photography of Auburndale is setting up a Halloween photo backdrop, Jammin' with You leads a family dance party, and Tim Randall gives a wood carving demonstration. Walk from the Brigham House ghost stories over to Hyde Field and you'll pass right through the corner the consultants are drawing up now.

Two bigger items still on separate tracks

Burying the overhead wires was never part of Phase 1. The working group recommended spending about $40,000 of leftover design money on a scoping study to see whether undergrounding is even possible. It also noted that paying for it would mean an electric-rate increase the City Council would have to approve after public process. By September, officials told the Area Council that DPW was working on a contract with Beta Engineering for the study, paid for with existing ARPA design funds. The project also has $150,000 in state Complete Streets money. The draft August and September minutes give different deadlines for spending the ARPA money: September 30 and December 31.

The Green Line station is a separate project run by the MBTA. The station was built in 1887 and sits in a historic district that was added to the National Register in 1976. The MBTA sold the building in 2007, and a dentist's office now uses it. According to Fig City News, construction on accessible ramps is expected to start in 2027. On August 7, the Area Council voted 8–0 to ask Mayor Marc Laredo to set up a meeting with MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng about the design's canopies and their fit with the historic station. The MBTA's own project page still lists the project as on hold, with construction "TBD."

Two dates are worth putting in your calendar now: the Phase I meeting on Thursday, October 8, and the Halloween Party on Saturday, October 24, from 2 to 5:30 p.m.

If you own near Lincoln or Walnut and want to know how the Barker Square plan, the Lincoln Street lighting or the station work could affect your street and your home's value over the next few years, McKenzie Howarth follows these meetings closely and is happy to talk it through. Ask for a free home valuation and we'll look at your corner of the Highlands together.