Szot Park – Chicopee MA

City:
Chicopee, MA

Site Type:
Parks and Recreation, Tennis Courts, Paths and Trails, Picnic and Other Facilities, Winter Sports, Athletic Courts and Fields

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

Description

WPA Bulletin, 1937: “On a misty, dismal day last April, a WPA crew started work on the wild and undeveloped 70-acre Bemis tract of land in the rear of the Chicopee High School, which is being converted into the city’s first public recreational field. Today the physical change of a large part of the land is decidedly noticeable. Here workmen have graded, leveled and filled this area into a huge flat field which will contain a football and baseball field, a running track, eight tennis courts, three basketball courts, a field house and service building, a grandstand and a parking space for several hundred cars. The field will be seeded and rimmed with attractive shade trees, making the plot one of the finest athletic plants in the western part of the state. In addition to a main drive about the fields a total of 81,000 square feet of walks will be laid. A 12-acre pond is included on the land. WPA workmen have completed construction of a dike to hold in this water and in the winter the spot can be used for winter sport purposes. Chicopee officials are watching the WPA work with interest and high school authorities are awaiting completion of the project which will give the school teams easily accessible practice and playing fields and the residents of the city an athletic plant which has been needed for years.”

Source notes

Works Progress Bulletin, Massachusetts: Nov. 1, 1937 (pg. 2). https://archive.org/details/worksprogressbul3637unit

Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish on May 5, 2017.

Location Info


Bemis Ave.
Chicopee, MA

Coordinates: 42.144720, -72.587080

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