War Memorial Park is a public park in
West Bridgewater, Massachusetts
West Bridgewater is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 7,707 at the 2020 census.
History
West Bridgewater was first settled in 1651 as a part of Olde Bridgewater. The town separated from Bridgewater, M ...
. It is located south of the town center, bounded by River Street, Arch Street and the
Town River
The Town River is a river in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. It flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 from the northeast end of Lake Nipp ...
.
History
The park was established in the 1930s and was constructed in part with funding from the
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...
. The park is located at the site of West Bridgewater's earliest industrial activities, a mill site dating to the 17th century. This early use spawned a variety of other water-powered industrial uses in the 18th and 19th centuries, and was notably the site of
Ames Shovel Company's first factory. Other industrial activities here included a sawmill, gristmill, shingle mill and even a pickle factory.
The 1936 creation of the park resulted in the donation of a large number of historic industrial artifacts, which are displayed on its grounds.
The park was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 2008.
Pulpit Rock
A feature of the park is Pulpit Rock, a large boulder where
Reverend James Keith, minister of the First Church of Bridgewater, is said to have preached his first sermon in 1663.
See also
*
References
National Register of Historic Places in Plymouth County, Massachusetts
Parks in Plymouth County, Massachusetts
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