Swimming Pool (former) – Ashland MA

City:
Ashland, MA

Site Type:
Parks and Recreation, Swimming Pools

New Deal Agencies:
Works Progress Administration (WPA), Work Relief Programs, Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)

Started:
1935

Site Survival:
No Longer Extant

Description

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) and Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) constructed a swimming pool for Ashland, starting in 1935. The pool was built along what was then municipal land along Granite Street, which no longer exists. A late-1800s map of the town suggests that the pool might have been located either along what is now Raymond Marcheti St. or at the approximate location of what is now David Mindess School.

WPA Bulletin, 1937:

Water, water everywhere but not a place to swim … a paradoxical predicament provoking to Ashland residents will be solved next season when the Ashland WPA Swimming Pool Project is completed.
Ashland is virtually surrounded by sources contributing to the Metropolitan Water System but health regulations prohibited bathing.
To remedy this condition WPA is finishing work on a modern pool which will measure 145 by 55 feet. Water will be supplied by pipe lines from nearby Mill Brook and filtration beds will purify the pool water before disposal into the Sudbury River.
The pool is constructed on a site formerly covered with a heavy growth of trees and undergrowth, involves excavation, stripping and pulling stumps, removing boulders and ledges, construction of an embankment and roadway, laying pipe lines, concrete wall construction and installation of stone-cement manholes; two filter pools; concrete dam and a rubble wall.”

Source notes

Annual Report of the Several Boards of Town Officers of the Town of Ashland, Massachusetts for the Year Ending December 31, 1935 (pg. 33). Works Progress Bulletin, Massachusetts: Thanksgiving 1937 (pg. 2) https://archive.org/details/worksprogressbul3637unit

Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish on December 30, 2016.

Location Info


Ashland, MA

Location notes: Approx. location

Coordinates: 42.262866, -71.460532

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