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17-583: The Sudbury Dam Historic District is a historic district on the southeastern end of Sudbury Reservoir off Massachusetts Route 30 in Framingham and Southborough, Massachusetts . The district encompasses the Sudbury Dam (also known as the Fayville Dam for the nearby neighborhood of Southborough), which impounds the reservoir, and an area encompassing several historic structures located below

34-472: A series of water filtration beds near the mouth of Marlborough Brook, where it enters Sudbury Reservoir near the town line between Marlborough and Southborough, Massachusetts . The filter beds were constructed in 1895 as part of the reservoir construction to improve the water quality of Marlborough and Walker Brooks, and are the best-preserved of two such facilities built as part of the public water supply serving Boston and surrounding communities. The site

51-754: A system of reservoirs fed from the Sudbury River to supplement the Lake Cochituate system in Natick . Today's reservoir was created by excavation from 1894 to 1898, with construction undertaken in sections. It was begun by the City of Boston but completed by the newly formed Metropolitan Water Board (predecessor to the modern Massachusetts Water Resources Authority ). All told, construction required moving about 4.5 million cubic yards (3.4 million cubic metres) of soil and boulders. Water began to fill

68-435: Is a 1.5-acre (0.61 ha) settling reservoir. From this, water was diverted over a stone and concrete weir into a channel running along the eastern edge of the beds. Sluiceways controlled the channeling of water into a series of 17 beds to the west, which consist of shallow basins with about 2 feet (0.61 m) of sand set at the bottom on top of a tile bed. The water would filter through these beds by gravity. Further down

85-476: Is a gate chamber, designed by Wheelwright & Haven, located on the dam north of the spillway. At first it regulated the flow out the channel toward Framingham Reservoir No. 3, but it was modified in 1907 to control flow to the Weston Aqueduct as well, and again in 1916–17 for the provision of hydroelectric power. The facility was used for power generation until the 1970s, when the generation equipment

102-711: The Chestnut Hill Reservoir . In 1947, the obsolete Whitehall , Hopkinton , Ashland and Cochituate reservoirs became state parks; and in 1976, the entire Sudbury System was officially reclassified as an emergency water supply. Today only the Sudbury Reservoir and the Foss Reservoir (Framingham Reservoir No. 3) remain as reserve drinking water supplies with the Weston and Sudbury aqueducts serving as reserve transmission. In an emergency

119-560: The Metropolitan Water Board, predecessor to today's Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), designed these structures in order to improve the quality of the water entering the reservoir from these two streams, and were completed by 1899. Only one other location in the Boston water supply had similar structures, which were later storm-damaged and partially filled in. These filter beds are no longer in service, and

136-655: The Sudbury and Foss reservoirs can be placed into service either as a primary source, as an alternate pass-through for Quabbin/Wachusett reservoir water in the event of a transmission problem blocking the normal transmission pathways, or as a supplemental source in a major drought. In all cases, the water would be untreated and would likely require boiling for consumption. The area's limited public access allows for picnicking, hiking, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, and shoreline fishing with restrictions. Marlborough Brook Filter Beds The Marlborough Brook Filter Beds are

153-632: The dam. The area includes water-supply-related structures from three phases of development of the Greater Boston water supply system. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. Sudbury Dam was built in 1894 to impound the Stony Brook branch of the Sudbury River . It has a large earthen embankment 1,800 feet (550 m) in length, and a concrete core wall with a spillway 300 feet (91 m) wide. There

170-548: The existing gate house. Adjacent to this head house is the head house for Shaft #4 of the Hultman Aqueduct , built 1939–40. The Hultman Aqueduct is a high-pressure underground aqueduct carrying water from Wachusett Reservoir to staging facilities closer to Boston, acting as a secondary system since 2003 to the MetroWest Water Supply Tunnel . This head house, also designed to harmonize with

187-492: The main channel another sluiceway channeled water into a larger holding bed, or into a second series of 10 "natural" beds, which fashioned out of already-extant gravel. When The Sudbury Reservoir was built in 1893-95, it was predominantly fed by the Sudbury River , but also received water from a number of smaller surrounding streams. Marlborough and Walker Brooks were two of these, and were identified from an early date as having substandard water quality. The engineering staff of

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204-492: The previous buildings, was designed by Densmore, LeClear & Robbins, who also designed similar structures for the systems of the Quabbin Reservoir . There are also two modern buildings on the site (built in the 1970s) that are not architecturally sympathetic to the others, and a small cluster of 19th century farm buildings that were moved when the dam was built. There are two bridges in the district. The older of

221-562: The reservoir on February 8, 1897, with construction of the reservoir's new Sudbury Dam on the Stony Brook Branch of the Sudbury River completed later that year. When completed, the reservoir's surface area was 2.02 square miles (5.2 km ), its average depth was 17 feet (5.2 m) and maximum depth was 65 feet (20 m), and its capacity was 7.253 billion US gallons (27.46 billion litres). The reservoir

238-471: The two carries Massachusetts Route 30 over the open channel below the dam, and was built in 1898. It is a concrete twin-arch bridge, faced in granite. The second bridge, a single-arch span made of similar materials, carries an access road over the open channel to the Weston Aqueduct head house, and was built in 1902–03. Sudbury Reservoir The reservoir was first begun in 1878, as part of

255-731: Was fed from the Wachusett Reservoir on the west by the Wachusett Aqueduct (1898), and by local streams. To improve the water quality of the local streams, filter beds were constructed adjacent to the reservoir. The reservoir's water was delivered to the Weston Reservoir to the east by the Weston Aqueduct (1901), or via a channel to the Framingham reservoirs and the Sudbury Aqueduct to

272-819: Was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. The filter beds are located on a 16 acres (6.5 ha) straddling the border between Marlborough and Southborough on the west side of the Sudbury Reservoir, and are now largely overgrown with vegetation. They are roughly bounded by three roadways: Walker Street to the north, Massachusetts Route 85 to the west (which is Maple Street in Marlborough and Marlboro Street in Southborough), and Acre Bridge Road in Southborough, which becomes Framingham Road in Marlborough. The northernmost portion, where Marlborough Brook enters after crossing under Walker Street,

289-439: Was removed. A storehouse, located just northeast of the dam, was built in 1900 to house wooden stop planks used to regulate flow. This building was converted to house electrical equipment when the hydroelectric facility was built. Below the dam, to the northeast of the channel to Framingham Reservoir No. 3, is the head house for the Weston Aqueduct. Built in 1903, it was designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge to harmonize with

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