Town of Becket Parade Grounds

Main Street, Becket, MA

The Parade Grounds is a historic park at the intersection of Main Street and YMCA Road in Becket. Providing open grass spaces, the park also has large trees scattered throughout, providing shaded areas ideal for picnics and relaxing on the lawn or a bench. While offering outdoor recreation opportunities, the land is best known for its colonial-era usage and history. It gets its name from its original title of "The Parade."  

During the 1770s, the land was used for the training and drilling of Becket Minutemen, who would eventually march to Boston, Massachusetts, with roughly 500 other men from Lenox and Pittsfield, to fight in the Battle at Bunker Hill in 1775. These men also joined in other battles for the Continental Army, with the Parade Grounds of Becket, MA, providing the space for their training.  

In addition to the history embedded in the Parade Grounds and the surrounding area, the First Meeting House Monument is also on the property. On the western side of the grounds, a bronze plaque on the seven-foot-tall monument commemorates a 1700s-founded church and the Town of Becket. For visitors hoping to find a historical and cultural experience specific to Berkshire County, parking is available on the road's shoulder or in the church parking lot.