Point Road playground to be renamed in honor of land’s former Cape Verdean proprietors

MARION — Manuel and Felizarda Pina were a Cape Verdean couple who immigrated to the United States in the early 20th century, settling in Marion.

Around 100 years later, a park will be named in their honor in the town they lived and raised seven sons in, after family descendants petitioned the Marion Select Board earlier this summer.

On the site of what had once been a segregated school, Point Road Playground will now be titled Manuel and Felizarda Pina Recreational Park.

Joined by several Pina family members, Marion resident Rhonda Pina Mendes suggested the renaming in honor of her great-grandparents to the Marion Select Board in mid-July.

After coming to the United States from Cape Verde in 1905, Manuel and Felizarda Pina “were able to work hard and purchase a lot of property on Point Road in Marion,” Pina Mendes said.

In 1930, Manuel Pina sold nearly an acre of his property to Marion, according to town records.

That lot became the site of the Point Road School, an elementary school primarily used by Cape Verdeans, while most Marion students attended Sippican School, according to town records.

The school no longer stands today. The site is now the Point Road Playground. Soon, it will bear the Pina name in honor of the previous proprietors of the land.

Pina Mendes said she “just wanted to have them acknowledged, recognized and honored.”

“It is an awesome feat, an awesome thing they did,” she said.

According to town records, the area around Point Road was home to the largest Cape Verdean community in the town in the 1920s and 1930s.

The Point Road School was closed and demolished sometime after 1961, when the opening of Old Rochester Regional High School created space at Sippican School for Point Road students, according to town records.

Pina Mendes said she learned about the land and her great-grandparents at a Sippican Historical Society presentation.

In a deed dated June 4, 1930, Manuel and Felizarda Pina conveyed 41,513 square feet to the town of Marion “on the North side” of Point Road, according to a Sippican Historical Society record.

Some of the land included in the parcel belonged to a Louis A. Pina, according to the deed.

Manuel Pina died in 1974, according to town records.

Mendes said her family members are “over the moon excited” about the dedication of the park.

Marion Town Administrator Geoff Gorman said a sign with the new title of the park will soon be put in place.

Mendes and Gorman are also working together to establish a “historical kiosk” to be put up at the park. The kiosk will feature photos of Manuel and Felizarda Pina, Point Road School and details about the Pina family and their history.