Discover West Bridgewater

If you’re looking for a hotel in West Bridgewater, local history and nature may play a role in choosing your destination. West Bridgewater brings together local history and nature: War Memorial Park is a former mill site, the Old Bridgewater Historical Society collects and shares materials about the history of “Old Bridgewater,” and West Meadows WMA has a canoe access point.

War Memorial Park: Mill History and Remembrance

War Memorial Park is a 4.8-acre memorial park established by the West Bridgewater municipal government in 1933. It commemorates the town’s history as the site of the earliest industrial mill park in the Old Bridgewater settlement. At the same time, the park was the site of a former 17th-century mill. The mill history therefore dates to an earlier period than the municipal establishment of the memorial park.

Another historical account is associated with Pulpit Rock. Traditional records report that Reverend James Keith, a Scottish immigrant and the first permanent pastor of the First Church of Bridgewater, delivered his first sermon there in 1663. Centuries later, the rock became part of West Bridgewater’s “Town Park” and War Memorial Park. The account of the sermon and the rock’s later incorporation into the park mark different periods in the town’s history.

Historical Collection and Memorial Building

The Old Bridgewater Historical Society collects, preserves, exhibits, and interprets materials, artifacts, and information about the history of “Old Bridgewater.” The Memorial Building was specifically built to house the society and its antiques. The park and the society focus on different things: War Memorial Park emphasizes remembrance and its historic mill site, while the society’s mission is to preserve and share materials about local history.

Both relate to local history, but approach it in different ways.

Water Access and Planned Trails

West Meadows WMA has parking and a canoe access point on Spring Street in West Bridgewater. The Hockomock Swamp ACEC includes some or all of the Hockomock River in Bridgewater and West Bridgewater. This connection to the river and protected area therefore encompasses both town names and extends beyond West Bridgewater alone.

The Nunckatessett Greenway Project is an initiative to create a non-motorized network of land and water trails along the 14-mile Town River and the regional Bay Circuit Trail. It is intended to connect public conservation areas with the town centers of West Bridgewater and Bridgewater, as well as with trails at Bridgewater State University. West Meadows WMA has parking and a canoe access point on Spring Street; by contrast, the Nunckatessett Greenway Project envisions a planned trail network.

Discover more destinations: Plymouth, Middleboro, Hanover, Pembroke, Hull, Marshfield, Brockton, Bridgewater

Back to the main travel overview: Plymouth.