The Ashland Dam and Spillway is a historic site at the north end of Ashland Reservoir in

Ashland State Park Ashland State Park is a public recreation area surrounding the Ashland Reservoir in the town of Ashland, Massachusetts. The state park's incorporate the entire shoreline of the reservoir, which is abutted by the Warren Conference Center and In ...

Ashland, Massachusetts Ashland is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the MetroWest region. The population was 18,832 at the 2020 United States Census. History The area now known as Ashland was settled in the early 18th century an ...

. Ashland Reservoir was constructed in 1885, impounding a portion of Cold Spring Brook, a tributary of the

Sudbury River The Sudbury River is a tributary of the Concord River in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 Originati ...

. The dam and spillway were built as part of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

's second major water works effort, which impounded large portions of the upper Sudbury River. They were listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1990.

Description and history

The dam and spillway were built in Ashland, a rural outer suburb west of Boston, in 1885 as one of the later elements of Boston's second major water supply system. This system impounded large sections of the

, primarily in

Framingham Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The city proper covers with a popul ...

, from where the water was piped toward Boston via the

Sudbury Aqueduct The Sudbury Aqueduct is an aqueduct in Massachusetts. It runs for from Farm Pond at Waverly Street in Framingham to Chestnut Hill Reservoir in Boston’s Chestnut Hill neighborhood. A later built extension main runs from the Farm Pond gateho ...

. Water impounded by the Ashland dam was originally fed to the aqueduct by a pair of pipes. Metropolitan Water District map (Boston, MA, 1910)

The dam is an earthen embankment, built above bedrock and above the level of the reservoir. There is a concrete core wall about thick at the bottom and at the top. The spillway lies at the eastern end of the dam, and is constructed of granite rubble, and a series of steps made of granite laid in concrete. The spillway is long, and is naturalistically designed to resemble a brook descending through landscape. Water exiting the spillway flows north in Cold Spring Brook to join a branch of the Sudbury River. By 1927, the reservoir was part of the system's backup elements, and a pipe was laid to feed its water into the

Sudbury Reservoir The Sudbury Reservoir (2.02 square miles) is an emergency backup Boston metropolitan water reservoir in Massachusetts, located predominantly in Southborough and Marlborough, with small sections in Westborough and Framingham. It was created when t ...

; this pipe was never used. The Ashland reservoir was taken out of service in 1947; along with surrounding land, it was turned over to the state and became

. The dam was originally topped by a gatehouse; it was demolished in 1976 after repeated vandalism. In 1990, the dam and spillway were added to the

. The park, with dam and spillway at its northern end, is administered by the

Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) is a state agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, situated in the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. It is best known for its parks and parkways. The DCR's mission is ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashland Dam And Spillway 1885 establishments in Massachusetts Ashland, Massachusetts Dams completed in 1885 Dams in Massachusetts Dams on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Spillways

Description and history

See also

References