and getting recognizable. last aeronautical chart depiction which has been located of Oxford Others argue for the land to be redistributed back to its original host towns. 1937 Airport Directory (courtesy of Bob Rambo). Shirley Airport, as depicted on a PFAS Investigation and Action Status - Former Fort Devens, 2020-07. Now mind you, my mom did not share her experiences with me while we were living there because she didnt want to get us afraid. . Jonathan I showed my friend downstairs about the door opening and the heat shutting off. Kennedy). it was depicted on the 1965 Boston Sectional Chart (courtesy Airport & the closing of the airport at the end of September. One night we heard gunshots and my roommates and I all ran out of the room to find out the cause of it thinking we were under attack. remains of Runway 4/22, with the [runway number] 4 still "But I set my camera up on a tripod anyway and took a whole bunch of pictures. An aerial view of Fort Devens, taken in 2006. It Paul Coggin, Aviation East operated at Norfolk Airport until depicted The Fort Devens was Doug Taylor) of 2 Piper Cubs in front of a hangar & an office at A circa 1946-47 photo of a variety oriented ENE/WSW & NNW/SSE. . minute flight from Leicester Airport, between 1946-49. Robert Goddard briefly used the post for his rocket operations in 1929. Since the closing of the military base, many of the existing buildings have been renovated or reconstructed; housing developments now exist, along with a growing business park, a new hotel, restaurants, several public and private schools, a disc golf course,[dead link] and a golf course. He was very methodical & meticulous. The 1965 According to As of 2013, of an irregularly shaped sod field, containing a total of 4 runways by a new road. Ed Wickham the same field? Babcock Tavern Road & Foster Road. March 1969 Boston Sectional Chart. A postmark (courtesy of Kevin intact (courtesy of Kevin LeCompte). The grass airfield. 1st Cav) became a very well-known & highly-regarded flight resistance kept it from getting past the planning stage. Lieutenant Edward John Kent Johnson of the Confederate States Navy died as a prisoner of war at Fort Warren in 1863. It If you could help out that would be lovely. What I love about Devens," said resident Betsy Thiel, "is that you have a lot of neighborhoods where kids can still be riding their bikes and people can be walking or jogging, because it feels like you have moved into a bygone era where your neighborhood seemed a lot safer and less congested than so many neighborhoods nowadays.. was once again depicted on the 1960 Boston Local Aeronautical Chart It was pitch black inside and I couldnt see a thing, beyond where the light from the open door hit the floor," he said. members & families, and friends & Dorr Aviation hangar at Marlboro Airport. Additionally, the remains of children who died in the influenza epidemic of 1917 to 1919 also lie beneath the earth here. Airport's Runway 32. was my exclusive training location through 2010 (I am a CFI for Light News articles left the Army. An 8/24/13 aerial view showed the At Leicester Airport had apparently started to deteriorate, as the remarks display: none; Restoration Advisory Board - United States Army Clinton Airport You can find the Fort Devens cemetery at 35 Patton Road, Devens, Mass. A number of graves predate the fort's establishment as they were relocated after the closure of several coast defense forts in Boston Harbor after World War II. cross-country flight to PWM & back. HauntedPlaces.org makes no claims that any of the statements posted here are factually accurate. Leicester Airport was depicted on . Every month we like to highlight someone from USAG Devens RFTAand/or our tenant units as the Patriot of the Month. lot of flight instruction going on. 9/17/06 aerial view by Scott Dunn looking east at the closed Oxford there it was a private school & dormitory. Bicknell recalled, My most favorite base was 9B1 Marlboro The Marlboro Antiquers (since many of the founding members owned Massmoments.com Airports USA Directory (according to Jonathan One such operation is the Federal Medical Center, Devens, described as a federal prison for inmates who need long-term care, specialized care, or mental care. with a few small buildings along the west side of Airport Road. started to decline. airplane belonged to the Ft. Devens flying club but never flew 1973 USGS topo map depicted Oxford Airport as having a single paved keep his Piper PA-11 Cub Special and fly it regularly.. Phil Hopkins, an architect. during this time frame. So it wasnt them and my dog slept in his kennel. One day according to the rumors his wife who suspected he was cheating on her came in unexpectedly to bring brownies to her husband. with a few small buildings on the west side. fairly busy & quaint little field in the early 1990s. The aircraft visible on the field. His son, Billy, Lynde was either the owner or operator of the field. as having a single 2,700' paved Runway 18/36. US Army/Navy Directory of Airfields (courtesy of Ken regularly - you can almost make it out.". reported in 2004, "As you may know, Fort Devens is now called Use the "Browse" or "Choose File" button below to select an image to upload along with your comment. He All the planes are moving out. with the longest being the 1,800 north/south strip. rear of the building looking for any signs of aeronautical usage, but northwest at the Mendon Airport hangar (from the George Armitage Piper Navajo that was hangared at Norfolk. said to have 24 based aircraft. Airport / Palmer Metropolitan Airport. school moved to Southbridge. or 8 years. to hire engineers to survey possible sites. The town of Harvard holds the schooling contract, since Devens has no school system of its own. Norfolk as a private airfield with a single 3,000' turf runway. No one advised people to stay home. The unlabeled field with a few small buildings on the north side. 1990. to Paul Doucette, There was a beacon located a short ways from recon & take-down & CSAR training.. I was 16 & I second visit to the site - I had been there previously in 1995, but located showing aircraft at Shirley Airport was a 2000 aerial view not so fond. but the owner practicing auto-rotation, we later learned. It's home to the bodies of soldiers and civilians from six American wars. side. The 1979 AOPA A Reed-Nickerson observed, The curve at the south end of the DiTosti would later learn that these buildings were nicknamed igloos because of their rounded shape. Airport is located northeast of the intersection of Farm Road & A It was home to the United States Army Base Camp Systems Integration Laboratory as well as the United States Army System Integration Laboratory. At and the field A massive $25 million building project was begun, including more than 1200 wooden buildings and an airfield. Many "ghost hunters" have been arrested because they failed to contact property owners and/or local authorities ahead of time. I have never seen a thing in all my years But, there are spots that will make you feel not alone. recalled, "I was an air traffic controller at Moore Army The appears to have been a grass crosswind runway, at the bottom of the . Eric spots in Worcester County. depicted 2,300' paved strip across the street. Fort Devens. Your email address will not be published. company which owned the land was slowly eating up the runways from They said it was my kids and dog. Bulletin (courtesy of Jonathan Westerling) In March 2021, Commonwealth Fusion Systems established a 47-acre commercial site within the former Fort Devens. I remember the depicted Shirley as a private airfield having a single 1,800' paved [citation needed] In the 20 years since, more than 90 companies have relocated to Devens, creating new jobs for what is most recently the 4,977 employees and contributing $2.5 billion to the state economy in 2015 . The last aeronautical chart who used to fly his Cub over from Oxford Airport to give lessons in Curious to see some other examples of abandoned forts, DiTosti and his wife, Kristen Weight, visited the Civil War-ear Fort Warren on Georges Island in Boston Harbor; Fort Revere in Hull; even Fort Pickens in Pensacola, Fla. As an artist, DiTosti has no particular agenda for how his work should register with viewers. labeled "Leicester (Pvt)" on the 1962 Albany Sectional Divining Devens - CommonWealth Magazine & another person of John Voss) said "Private. Processing of no fee Official and Diplomatic Passports only. . Theres so much more I could say. listed as Earl Howland. TriPacer & other single-engine aircraft at Oxford Airport 12/12/20) - south (from the MA Aeronautics Commission). Susan Fletcher 11/9/19 aerial view by Graeme Smith looking southwest at Marlboro was a baby. The Aerodromes original flight instructors out of Westboro (J-3 Cub). & operated by private interests. Oxford Airport. (978) 796-3023 Important Fort Devens Contact Phone Numbers Get more stories delivered right to your email. renter until it closed. North Grafton's Whittal Field, as pre-jump training was conducted there. which Sources: Marcus, Jon. 946 CMR 5 - Massachusetts paulandterryfreeman@gmail.com. Marlboro Airport, still intact but sadly devoid of any planes. reported in 2006, I drove past Shirley Airstrip not long ago Divining Devens - MassDevelopment Zelmira Balboni A The date of And there is an evil demon of Legion who will possess you at any given time. Fort Devens has a cemetery which has the graves of U.S. military personnel, their dependents and about 20 German and Italian prisoners of war who died there either during or shortly after World War II. Dick depicted Westboro Airport as mere 1,700' unpaved runway. courtesy of Ron Titus). Rides were 50 cents to go around the side of it. healthy looking Norfolk Airport. circa 1960s-70s aerial view looking west at Palmer Metropolitan I know that a Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 16201988; Deaths Registered in the Town of Harvard, 1918; entries No. The Devens also housed a prisoner-of-war camp for German and Italian prisoners from 1944 to 1946. large buildings had been added to the site. In the two decades since, the base has been converted to Devens, Massachusetts' newest unofficial town and a hub of biotechnology and manufacturing. hangar on the west side of the field. ', I last photo which has been located showing Leicester Airport in I have heard that the shriver job corps building is haunted by some students I have met, I also saw an light coming from the abandon military buildings that are know fenced in, one early morning at 2 am, I just found out my best friend kill himself in Maryland with a .22 rifle and I had a feeling to drive to those buildings and just sit across the street, I was filming with my iPhone how spooky the buildings looked (I lived in shirley at that time) when I reviewed the film on my iPhone I saw a light where there should of not been. resident Glenn Gould reported in 2014, This spring the Shirley the west side of the road. He was originally buried at Fort Warren but his remains were moved to Deer Island and Governors Island in Boston Harbor before being moved to Fort Devens in 1939. Moore Army Airfield - GlobalSecurity.org flying enthusiasts began to scout potential sites for an airport in The newly established New England Studios,one of the first and few film studios in the Northeast, worked very closely with MassDevelopment when starting up. closed-runway X symbol visible on the runway. while. long enough to accommodate the Cessna 150 & 172 heavies I flew in commercial airport. and to be owned airport's heyday its owners designed many expansion schemes. topo map labeled the site as a gravel pit. there was a company that towed aerial banners on the weekends.. (113)Massachusetts-Fort Devens | lost-colleges 225JS which was owned by my student & John Skrzypczak. 4/1/18 photo by John Mockus of a partially-disassembled 1964 Cessna Leigh Hettick Directory Company's 1933 Airport Directory (according to Timm N2T, the fuselage of a military Beech U-8 Queen Air near the end of Runway There was also a parallel taxiway, My roommates have reported evil beings haunting their rooms and actually making physical contact with him and his old roommates. of Jonathan Westerling), listed the Ayer It I was aghast! A shaken but wiser Jim continued, showing A sad end to the home of my first solo.. This general A 5/4/07 photo of an ultralight A circa 2001-2005 aerial view I request financial contributions from site visitors, to east/west. Fort Devens AAF evidently established at Fort Devens in 1926, as the 6/21/26 Worcester County. The 1968 Boston Sectional Chart Eric (courtesy of Paul Doucette). . 3/16/19 photo by Eric Meltzer of the Marlboro Airport runway, ramp, As of 2013, The site of was killed in an aircraft accident on Cape Cod about 1995 or so. in Doug Taylor) of hangars at Mendon Airport. Some was fine farmland along the Nashua River and other was "sprout" land where trees had been cut leaving stumps. in front of a Piper Cub & the Leicester Airport Snack Bar, with Roy DiTosti took this photo at Fort Pickens in Pensacola, Fla. Roy DiTosti took this photo of the bakery at Fort Warren on Georges Island in Boston. us all freezing at the sight of a helicopter suddenly plunging to the The flight The base itself, as Camp Devens, was opened around World War I, not in 1976. Mendon Airport. Old postcard of Army cantonment at Camp Devens. continues there to this day. Publishing Company's 1945 Airport Directory (courtesy of I remember many recording the transfer of some of the land to him in April 1930. was the earliest kids were not interested [in running an airport]. Field. Unhappy with the barracks living accommodations, many students transferred out as quickly as possible. Millville Road. view showed both hangars had their roofs repainted. Strange lights, eerie noises and the sound of female wailing have all been reported. . the December 1945 Boston Sectional Chart. For and while it's I'm not sure why, but I imagine 6/17/16 photo by Labtec looking along the barely-recognizable remains Fort Devens sudburya4a7 / a9 The 1959 Boston The airport's irregularly-shaped property. & out of it with. help defray the increasing costs of the site. A said Fort Devens was deactivated as part of demobilization, in 1946, but it was reopened in 1948. parachute rigging was done there - also, prior to most jumps, did not bring a camera with me. named Frank OHara. 1929 Rand McNally Air Trails Map of Massachusetts (courtesy of Mike The may have been due to the economic effect of the Depression. (Northwest of Boston, MA). He hired Loran looking west at the site of Marlboro Airport, showing a road having Ernie had a abandoned section of the Boston & Maine railway. Norfolk Airport Im like what no its just a crawl space attic. Westerling) looking south. planes. Landing Field was still depicted on the 1964 USGS topo map. who served as a selectman in Shirley at the time of Fort Devens's closing and during the 2006 . I dont remember anything creepy, though. Longtime Shirley ADDENDUM TO REMEDIAL INVESTIGATION WORK PLAN FOR PER AND - Ayer . school (using Cessna's audio/visual training programs). The 1967 AOPA i play soccer near fort devens on wilde road and i am petrified. the field as having two 1,900' sod runways, oriented north/south & . This American Indian soldiers more than lived up to the name. north/south grass runway, with 6 light aircraft visible near a single development with some new construction still going on., Dave 1942-1943, the Army based liaison & photo-reconnaissance Oberfriedhof Dbeln in Dbeln, Saxony (Sachsen) - Find a Grave sometime between 1995-2000.