The Forbes Hill Standpipe is a historic water tower structure located on Reservoir Road in

Quincy, Massachusetts Quincy ( ) is a coastal U.S. city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county and a part of Greater Boston, Metropolitan Boston as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in 2020 was 1 ...

, USA. The tower was built in 1899-1902 to contain a steel water tank. The site originally included an adjacent reservoir that supplied Quincy with water from the Metropolitan Boston Water System. The standpipe was taken out of service in 1955 and the reservoir was filled in. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

History

The tower was constructed by the Metropolitan Water Board (now the MWRA), after the City of Quincy joined the system in 1897. Dexter Brackett was the supervising engineer for the project. It is built from local Quincy granite, and is in diameter and in height. Although now closed to the public, the crenelated tower roof is accessible via a spiral staircase located between the steel tank and inside tower walls. The standpipe and reservoir were fed from the Chestnut Hill Reservoir. The adjacent rectangular reservoir measured 280 feet long by 100 feet wide at the bottom, with sloping concrete sides, and an average depth of 18 feet. The Forbes Hill reservoir provided a reserve capacity of , as part of the southern high-service system that fed Quincy,

Milton Milton may refer to: Names * Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname) ** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet * Milton (given name) ** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...

and parts of nearby Dorchester. The Forbes Hill reservoir and standpipe were discontinued in the 1950s, after the construction of the Blue Hills Reservoir in the southern part of Quincy. Radio equipment at the tower serves the Minuteman Repeater Association, a regional

amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communic ...

club.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Infrastructure completed in 1902 Towers completed in 1902 Buildings and structures in Quincy, Massachusetts Water towers on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Quincy, Massachusetts

History

See also

References