Site History

The Henry Wood’s Sons Paint Factory began operations on the site in 1848 and continued for approximately 80 years before the factory buildings were abandoned and then demolished. Wellesley College acquired the land in 1932 and preserved it as undeveloped land. In the 1970s, the Department of Environmental Protection, DEP (then called the Department of Environmental Quality and Engineering, DEQE), notified the College that paint pigments found in the soil of the former factory site contained high levels of metals such as lead and chromium. Extensive site investigations revealed that soil and sediment posed a significant risk to human health and the environment. The College has worked with DEP and other agencies to prepare a comprehensive cleanup plan for the site. Cleanup began in mid-March 2001 and is expected to last 14 months.

Site Location

The roughly 16-acre site of the former paint pigment factory is located at the northwest corner of the 500-acre campus property. Cleanup will be focused on Paintshop Pond, and neighboring wetlands including Upper Waban Brook and Lake Waban, as well as uplands immediately south of Route 135. The College cleanup plan does not include Morses Pond which is owned by the Town. That cleanup is being handled separately by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

Maintained by the Office for Public Information
Date Created: June 26, 2001
Last Modified: June 26, 2001
paintshop pond