Wellington State Beach – Bristol NH

Description

The Civilian Conservation Corps built facilities at the Wellington State Beach. The work included several structures, picnic facilities, and the landscaping of the beach.

Brief history of the park, from NH State Parks: “One dollar; what will it buy today? In 1931, for one dollar and the generosity of an ecologically-minded summer visitor from New York City, the state of New Hampshire obtained the deed to Wellington Reservation. It was “to be forever kept as a public forest reservation, to be used for the development of a bird sanctuary, for public recreation, . . and for any purpose tending to the promotion of forestry.” A bronze plaque located at the beginning of the Peninsula Trail expresses the public’s indebtedness to Elizabeth R. Wellington who deeded the land as a memorial to her father, Aaron H. Wellington. Two nearby islands, Belle and Cliff, were granted to the state in the 1940s. An additional parcel, purchased from the Follansbee family, was later added to the property. The Wellington Reservation, with the islands and Follansbee land, make up what is now Wellington State Park.

Wellington is one of the many parks in the country that benefited from the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The CCC was created by President Roosevelt in the early 1930s in an effort to help bring an end to the Great Depression. The CCC, often referred to as Roosevelt’s tree army, was designed to utilize the country’s many unemployed youths in natural resource conservation efforts. The beach, picnic areas and original buildings at Wellington were created by the CCC.”