Saville Dam is an earthen

embankment dam An embankment dam is a large artificial dam. It is typically created by the placement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil or rock. It has a semi-pervious waterproof natural covering for its surface and ...

with masonry work on the eastern branch of the Farmington River in southwestern Barkhamsted, Connecticut. The dam is 135 ft. (41 m) tall and 1,950 ft. (590 m) long and has an uncontrolled spillway on its western portion. It creates the Barkhamsted Reservoir which has a volume of and is the primary water source for

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

. In 1927, the Metropolitan District Commission began to purchase land in the present-day footprint of the dam and reservoir. Construction of the dam commenced in 1936 while land to the north was being stripped of lumber and buildings. Before the Metropolitan District Commission named the Saville Dam in 1940 in honor of its chief engineer, Caleb Mills Saville, it was referred to as the Bill's Brook Dam after the brook that ran near the site at the time. The foundations for "Bill's Brook Dam" and the diversion tunnel for the East Branch of the Farmington River were completed in August 1934. Subsequently, the East Branch was diverted into the concrete conduit at the bottom of the Bill's Brook Dam site. The dam was completed in May 1940, at a total cost for dam and reservoir of $10M. Although the Saville Dam was completed in 1940, it was not until 1948 that the Barkhamsted Reservoir finally filled to capacity. The Farmington River East Branch is impounded for nearly behind the dam, with the northernmost open waters of Barkhamsted Reservoir terminating in Hartland, Connecticut just south of the Massachusetts border. The reservoir flooded many buildings and farms of Barkhamsted, including the village of Barkhamsted Hollow.Barkhamstead from the Air, 1934 and 2004
/ref> The village of Barkhamsted Center, partially flooded, lies just to the west of the reservoir. Its remaining buildings are part of the

Barkhamsted Center Historic District Barkhamsted Center Historic District is a historic district at the intersection of Center Hill Road and Old Town Hall Road in Barkhamsted, Connecticut. It encompasses the surviving elements of Barkhamsted's original town center, most of which ...

, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

See also

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Further reading