Charles H. Greenwood sold the land where the Sarah Greenwood School is located to the City. It has been said that when he died, he left $35,000 for a Greenwood Memorial to his mother, Sarah, and his father Artemus, and we presume that the City may have named the School in exchange for the bequest. In his will he bequeathed $5,000 outright to the Highlands Methodist Episcopal Church along with $10,000 more if the name of the church would be changed to Greenwood Memorial Church. The name of the Church was officially changed on September 23, 1913
The following appears in the booklet What’s in a Name? Names of Boston’s Schools, Sarah Greenwood was not the heiress of the estate, and she did not stipulate anything about the land for the school. Her son Charles H. Greenwood was the person responsible. We don’t know if she was the daughter of a judge.]
Sarah Greenwood School (Elementary & Middle)
189 Glenway Street, Dorchester
Built 1919
Funk & Wilcox, Architects
The daughter of a prominent Boston judge and the heiress to his estate, Greenwood owned large tracts of land in Dorchester. In 1918 she donated the land for the Greenwood School with the stipulation that it have a playground that all the children in the area could use.
Source:
What’s In a Name? Names of Boston’s Schools: Their Origin. Boston: School Volunteers for Boston and the Boston Public Schools, 1980.