Skip to main content
pioneervalley.org
The Goodrich Bridge — a small wooden covered bridge with weathered red-brown shingled walls and a peaked shingled roof — sits at the far side of a still pond in Stanley Park. The bridge is reflected in the dark water alongside surrounding trees in early autumn color, with greens, yellows, and rust tones along the far bank. Tall conifers rise behind the bridge against an overcast sky. A low railing and grassy bank line the foreground. The light is soft and even.
Outdoors · Park
Goodrich Bridge across the pond in Stanley Park, Westfield, October 2024. Photo by John Phelan, source, CC BY 4.0.

Stanley Park

Westfield, Hampden County

Category
Park
Town
Westfield
County
Hampden
Difficulty
Easy

Stanley Park covers about 300 acres on the west side of Westfield, opposite Westfield State University. It’s a private nonprofit park, founded in 1949 by Stanley Home Products founder Frank Stanley Beveridge, and has been free to the public ever since.

What’s inside

  • Rose Gardens: more than 2,500 bushes in over 50 varieties, an All-America Rose Selections award winner.
  • Rhododendron Display Garden: sponsored by the Massachusetts chapter of the American Rhododendron Society, peak bloom in late May and early June.
  • Arboretum: about five acres of trees and shrubs around a thirty-foot fountain.
  • Asian Garden and Tea House: a bamboo Japanese-style tea house set among alpine conifers, rhododendrons, and azaleas.
  • Colonial Pond and Covered Bridge: the Goodrich Bridge crosses a small pond stocked with ducks and swans, with two working mills on the bank.
  • Carillon Tower: a 98-foot tower housing 25 English bells and 61 Flemish carillon bells, used for summer concerts.
  • Wildlife Sanctuary: roughly 198 acres of woodland trails along the Little River.

What to know

  • Open season: the full park runs from the first Saturday in May through the last Sunday in November; Gates 1 and 5 remain open year-round, weather permitting.
  • Hours: 7am to dusk, with gates closing about a half hour before sunset.
  • Admission: free; the park is sustained by the Frank Stanley Beveridge Foundation and donors.
  • Leashed dogs welcome outside the Rose Garden and other designated gardens; clean up after them.
  • Summer concert series in the Beveridge Pavilion is a Westfield fixture; check the park’s calendar for the season’s program.

Sources