Stiles & Hart Conservation Park

stilesandhart_2008_thumb
click for gallery

This 75-acre site was an agricultural fairground with a grand exhibition hall from 1820 to 1875 in Bridgewater, MA. In 1895 a local teacher, William Basset Sr., purchased the land and founded the Bridgewater Brick Company, mining clay and manufacturing bricks. In 1913 the Stiles & Hart Brick Company purchased the operation. Damage to buildings caused by a hurricane in 1938 forced brick production to cease but clay mining continued until after World War II. Now the site has grown in with forest, all structures are gone, and the only evidence of prior uses are piles of old bricks here and there throughout the site.