Photographed by: Mark Lindhult

Avenue A

Turners Falls, Massachusetts

Anchoring the corner of Avenue A and 4th Street in Turners Falls, Spinner Park, is an is an integral part of Downtown Turners Falls. A cultural icon, the park features prominently a cast iron sculpture honoring the contribution of women to the Town’s textile industry and industrial past.

In 2017, the Town of Montague, RiverCulture and Franklin County HRA collaborated with Berkshire Design Group (BDG) to reenvision the 1987 pocket park, which had fallen into disrepair. BDG led community engagement sessions to listen to community input, share design ideas, and develop a final concept. The resulting new vision carves out a gathering space in the park adjacent to the sculpture, providing more space for interaction and reflection; rather than objectifying the sculpture, the redesign integrates it into the social fabric of the community space. The $290,000 renovation was funded by a Community Development Block Grant.

With these few adjustments, the reverence for the statue is preserved, and the Spinner statue remains a prominent element, re-emphasizing the importance of women labor in the history of Turners Falls. The statue is given further emphasis as it extends beyond the planting wall, and lighting is placed to highlight it even at night, and is moved to the back of the space as a focal point for those entering from the street.

The former concrete garden bed walls were crumbling and uninviting and have been replaced with more durable and significant granite seat walls. These walls create a sense of subtle enclosure while allowing views beyond. The design is fully accessible, integrating two custom benches that provide backed seating along the wall and using materials that are supportive of individuals with mobility differences. The planting beds have been left mulched with only tree plantings. As expressed during the community engagement process, the neighbors who had already planted and kept up the old beds wanted for the design to leave a space for their plantings. BDG provided a suggested plant list to the Town and neighbors, but left the beds empty for a Spring 2022 community planting project.

The sculpture is a replica of the original sculpture by French sculptor Leon Cugnot (Paris 1835-1894), and dedicated to the park in 1985. The name Spinner Park, is a reference to the textile workers creating cloth through spinning flax and wool in the nearby Griswold Cotton Mill. The sculpture holds a drop spindle and appears to pull yarn from a skein of wool. During the reconstruction of the park, RiverCulture, organized a performance art installation of modern day women standing as temporary sculptures on the pedestal where Spinner once sat, and would return again at the park’s completion.

Spinner Park though small, forms an integral part of the Turners Falls Downtown and is central to a number of seasonal activities including the Fall festival and Santa’s Mail Box.

Berkshire Design is proud to help shape and strengthen the communities in which we work to design spaces which bring community to life, and celebrate cultural heritage. The Spinner Park Story continues into the Spring of 2022, as local residents will be weaving their own plantings into the raised mulch beds. We are thrilled to see this park come to life and meet its full potential.