Canton High School, Canton, MA
The Need
The Richard MacLeod Memorial Field House was conceived to meet the civic needs of the community while complying with the mandatory requirements of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Federal Government required the Town of Canton to come into compliance with the current ADA laws and public sanitary codes or risk the possibility of having the High School sports fields closed to the public. The Richard MacLeod Memorial Field House meets these requirements.
The Facility
The Richard MacLeod Memorial Field House will provide the Canton High School sports fields with access to public and private rest rooms, team medical and instructional rooms, a snack and refreshment bar, and field maintenance equipment storage, all housed in an attractive building displaying Canton's continued progressive development. The entire facility has been specifically designed for long term easy of maintenance in order to control the Town's cost of ownership.
Amenities:
| Canton Selectman | Canton School Committee | Canton Recreation Committee | Canton Field Renovation Committee | The Salah Foundation |
| Canton Athletic Department | Canton High School Gridiron Club | Canton Town Assessors | Canton Pop Warner Football | Canton Soccer |
| Canton Baseball | Canton Girls Field Hockey | Canton Police Department | Canton Fire Department | Canton Grounds and Maintenance |
| Canton Town Engineering | Canton Building Inspectors | Reebok Corporation | The Flatley Corporation | Republic Plumbing |
| The Rustlewood Co. | Bank of Canton | Canton Town Club |
Press
The Canton Journal
By Aleisa Fleming
Kicking the year off on a positive note, Thomas Flatley of the Flatley Company donated $25,000 to the Richard MacLeod Field house Fund at Tuesday's selectmen's meeting.
"Dick was a great citizen of this town and I am honored to help benefit the youth of Canton," Flatley said.
Canton Gridiron president Steve Carlton and MacLeod's, daughter, Susan, accepted Flatley's generous donation. "This is a great cause. We are very excited about this project and are looking forward to completing the field house by September," Carlton said.
The Patriot Ledger
By Fred Hanson
CANTON- Memorial Field, home of the high school and Pop Warner football teams, has never been known for its creature comforts. There's no permanent concession stand, and only portable toilets are available. Members of the Canton Gridiron Club hope to change that by next season by raising money to build the Richard MacLeod Field House.
"We want to bring some pride back to the area," club President Steve Carlton said. "You go to other fields around the league and it's so much better."
The 60-by-60-foot concrete block building would have an aluminum roof, a concession stand, public bathrooms and rooms where teams can gather for half time strategy sessions and pep talks. The plans also call fur a new, more impressive entrance to the stadium, with a wrought-iron fence and gate.
Carlton said the club has been working on the project since Christmas, and a field house committee has been holding regular meetings. Local architect Robert Simone of The Rustlewood Co. has drawn up a set of plans for the building.
The building will be named for former Assessor Richard MacLeod who suffered a fatal heart attack shortly after making a speech at the Feb. 10 special town meeting in favor of the Reebok headquarters complex.
"He was a very big supporter of Canton football," Carlton said. MacLeod organized the Canton Town Club's annual banquet for the football team, he said.
Reebok donated $25,000 to the school system in MacLeod's memory, and his family asked that the money go toward the construction of the field house.
The group will start a fund-raising campaign in the next couple of weeks. If the drive comes up short, they may seek the balance from voters at next year's town meeting.
"Once we get the approvals, we could see the building done in a couple of months," in time for the 1998 football season, Carlton said.
Donations for the proposed field house can be sent to The Richard MacLeod Memorial Field House Committee, Post Office Box 485, Canton, MA 02021.