Glendale Falls is a waterfall and the name of an open space preserve in

Middlefield, Massachusetts Middlefield is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 385 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Middlefield was first settled in 1780 and w ...

owned and managed by the

Trustees of Reservations The Trustees of Reservations is a non-profit land conservation and historic preservation organization dedicated to preserving natural and historical places in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is the oldest land conservation nonprofit orga ...

. The falls, fed by the waters of Glendale Brook are one of the longest waterfall runs in

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

. Adjacent to the falls on the north side lies the stone foundation of an 18th-century

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

operated by the long-defunct Glendale Farm. The farm was established in the early 1770s by a future Revolutionary War veteran named John Rhoads. The initial success of the farm led to the construction of what is now Clark Wright Road, the sole means of accessing the falls by car. The farm was not successful for long, however; by 1799 the property was sold and Rhoads was gone. The preserve was established in 1964.

References

External links

The Trustees of Reservations: Glendale Falls
Landforms of Hampshire County, Massachusetts The Trustees of Reservations Waterfalls of Massachusetts Open space reserves of Massachusetts Protected areas of Hampshire County, Massachusetts Protected areas established in 1964 1964 establishments in Massachusetts {{HampshireCountyMA-geo-stub