{"nrhp_refnum":"08000445","name":"War Memorial Park","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"River St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"West Bridgewater","county":"Plymouth County","state":"MA","lat":42.01642462250004,"lon":-71.00815702908892,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2008-05-21","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Engineering","Industry","Landscape Architecture","Commerce"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 4.87-acre town-owned park along the Town River on River Street in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, laid out in 1936 as a Works Progress Administration project on the site of a long-running mill and industrial complex.","why_significant":"The park combines surviving mill-era archaeological and industrial remains, including stone-lined canals, foundations and water channels, with a 1930s WPA-built town park designed by Eveline Johnson. The site hosted mills from the 1660s into the early 20th century, notably an iron forging works making shovels associated with the Ames family.","narrative":"War Memorial Park is a 4.87-acre town park on the north bank of the Town River in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Its grounds were occupied by mills from the mid 1600s into the early 1900s, including a sawmill, gristmill, fulling mill and, most prominently, an iron works producing shovels linked to the Ames family. In 1936 the abandoned industrial site was converted into a park as a Works Progress Administration project, with landscape design by Eveline D. Johnson. Visitors can still see stone-lined canals, subsurface water channels, mill foundations, stone slab bridges and a dam with its head gates. Park-era features include curving crushed-stone paths, cedar post-and-rail fencing, a small log-style kiosk, a stone storage building and the Annex Stage. Pulpit Rock, tied by tradition to a 1663 sermon, lies in the Annex. The combination of preserved industrial remains and a largely intact 1930s park landscape underlies its listing.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Eveline D. Johnson, landscape designer (park, 1936-1938); built as a WPA project","architectural_style":"No style","criteria":[],"status_note":"Overall condition described as good following 2001-2002 restoration work; used for passive recreation and community events. The 1976 reconstructed waterwheel is in very poor condition.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.502471-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/54/7966/63796654/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/08000445.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796654","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Memorial_Park_(West_Bridgewater,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7968478"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/plymouth-county/war-memorial-park-08000445/"}