Westover Air Reserve Base, Massachusetts § 106 Determination of Eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places

Author(s): John Ferguson

Year: 2011

Summary

This report documents the evaluation of significance and integrity and the determination of National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) eligibility for resources (i.e. buildings, structures, and landscape features over 50 years of age) at Westover Air Reserve Base (ARB) in Massachusetts per the Secretary of the Interior's Standards and Guidelines for Evaluation and 36 CFR Part 63. This report is submitted to the Massachusetts State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) in compliance with §106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966, as amended and 36 CFR Part 800.

As a potential historic district, Westover ARB has undergone considerable alterations since its Period of Significance (1940-1973). Alterations include: cumulative historically-inappropriate treatments to most of the 41 extant potentially-eligible and/or potentially-contributing resources, the removal or destruction over time of dozens of buildings from this period (including 20 since 1995), and the infiltration of many newer buildings, structures, and landscape features throughout the base. These alterations have resulted in a substantial loss of integrity of design, materials, workmanship, feeling, association, and setting for the base as a whole and its component parts (i.e. individual resources).

As the following historic context and discussion of resource descriptions and alterations to Westover ARB demonstrates, Westover ARB, while historically significant, does not contain an eligible National Register district due to its substantial loss of historic integrity needed to represent its Period of Significance. However, two of Westover's WWII-era buildings (Buildings 1502 and 1520) retain enough individual significance and integrity to be considered individually eligible for the NRHP.

Cite this Record

Westover Air Reserve Base, Massachusetts § 106 Determination of Eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places. John Ferguson. 2011 ( tDAR id: 438108) ; doi:10.6067/XCV8438108

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Keywords

Culture
Historic

Site Type
Chapel • Military Structure • Military Support Facilities • Non-Domestic Structures • Recreational Facilities

Investigation Types
Architectural Survey • Heritage Management • Historic Background Research • Records Search / Inventory Checking

General
Determination of Eligibility • National Register of Historic Places

Geographic Keywords
Chicopee, MA • Hampden (County) • Massachusetts (State / Territory)

Temporal Keywords
Cold War Era • World War II

Spatial Coverage

min long: -73.113; min lat: 42.015 ; max long: -71.849; max lat: 42.511 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Westover Air Reserve Base

Sponsor(s): Andrew G. Milroy

Prepared By(s): U.S. Forest Service, Heritage Stewardship Group

Submitted To(s): Westover Air Reserve Base; Westover Air Reserve Base

File Information

  Name Size Creation Date Date Uploaded Access
USFS-HSG_WARB-106-Elig-Determination-for-the-NRHP_2011_OCR_PDF... 37.17mb Apr 21, 2011 Sep 14, 2017 4:58:46 PM Confidential
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Contact(s): Westover Air Reserve Base