{"nrhp_refnum":"00001341","name":"Field, D.W., Park","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"Bet. Pond St., Avon and Pleasant St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Brockton","county":"Plymouth County","state":"MA","lat":42.101042514000056,"lon":-71.0441506442791,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2000-11-24","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Conservation","Landscape Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 650-acre public park in northern Brockton and southern Avon, Massachusetts, laid out mainly between 1925 and the late 1930s as a gift from Brockton businessman Daniel Waldo Field. It centers on a chain of seven water bodies encircled by a six-mile parkway.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the park as a landscape built by a local philanthropist for his community, with a naturalistic design that reflects Olmsted-influenced park planning, including a circuit parkway and linked waterways. It also notes the park's WPA-era construction and possible archaeological value. The period of significance closes with Field's death in 1944.","narrative":"D.W. Field Park is a 650-acre public park spanning northern Brockton and southern Avon, Massachusetts. Laid out mainly between 1925 and the late 1930s, it was a gift from Brockton businessman Daniel Waldo Field, who had no children and regarded it as his legacy. Seven man-made ponds and lakes, covering 201 acres, form its core, ringed by a six-mile parkway meant for pleasure driving and bordered by woodland. A 1926 plan by Boston landscape architects Negus and Punchard, shaped by Olmsted-office training, guided Field's own on-site supervision. Features include a 60-foot stone observation tower built in 1928, fieldstone entrance piers, bridges and walls, many built by WPA workers, and a golf course begun in 1926. Ellis Brett Pond, once a popular swimming area, was drained in the 1970s because of pollution. The park is significant as a community landscape of the 1925-1944 period, ending with Field's death in 1944.","period_of_significance":"1925-1944","architect_builder":"Preliminary plan by Samuel P. Negus and William H. Punchard (1926); built under D.W. Field's supervision; contractors included Sawyer Construction, Warren Bros. Co., and H.F. Johnson; Brockton City Engineering Department designed some structures","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"The park remains in use as public recreation space. The parkway is largely intact and in relatively good condition. Ellis Brett Pond was drained in the 1970s because of water quality problems, and the reservoir gate house is no longer used.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.236214-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/58/7966/63796658/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/00001341.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00001341/ece5632602-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00001341/ece5632602-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:D.W._Field_Park,_Brockton_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:D.W._Field_Park,_Brockton_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796658","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.W._Field_Park","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5203460"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/plymouth-county/field-d-w-park-00001341/"}