Bird's eye view of Enfield The increasing demand in metropolitan Boston for pure drinking water led engineers in 1890s to propose damming the Swift River Valley in western Massachusetts to create a massive reservoir. The best location they surmised would be the relatively sparsely populated Swift River Valley west of Worcester, an area that included the towns of Dana, Prescott, Greenwich, and Enfield. The subsequent history of the construction of Quabbin Reservoir was both a marvel of engineering and a traumatic incident in the lives of thousands. Today throughout the region, the Quabbin resonates still, for to see the Quabbin waters rise live meant to see the death of four towns.

Settled by Europeans later than areas to its east and west, the Swift River Valley remained a rural and remote place well into the nineteenth century. When Dudley Woodbridge traveled from Cambridge to Sunderland, Mass., in 1728, he described the region been the Ware and Swift Rivers (on the southern margins of the current Reservoir) as "uninhabited these five miles" with its western edges marked by "wonderfull Peaks and ridges of mountains." The major east-west routes bracketed the Quabbin watershed north and south, leaving Dana, Prescott, and Greenwich largely untouched by the main commercial currents.

Enfield, the southernmost of the Quabbin towns, had first been settled in the mid-eighteenth century and was incorporated in 1816. In many ways it was the cultural center of the Quabbin region. The most populous and prosperous town in the Valley, it was a minor industrial and agricultural center and boasted the only major print shop in the Swift River Valley, that of the printers Solomon and John Howe.

Despite the technical difficulties of connecting a massive water supply across half the length of the state and the social and political turmoil caused by uprooting thousands of residents, Quabbin went forward. Construction on the series of tunnels necessary to bring water eastward began in 1926 and on the dam itself in 1936. One year later, the residents of Enfield held a farewell ball in the town hall for their lost community. The Reservoir began to fill in August 1939, reaching capacity in 1946.

SCUA houses several collections relating to the difficult history of the Quabbin Reservoir, including one containing 109 photographs and real photo postcards taken from Enfield (and a small number from nearby towns), ranging from commercial views of the town, its business and farms, to snapshots of its residents. The Department also collects books printed in the Quabbin region and maps documenting the Valley before, during, and after the damming, and has an interesting collection of papers relating to the Howe family.

The Department is always seeking additional photographs, letters, or other materials relating to the history of the Quabbin towns and welcomes donations. Please contact the Head of Special Collections or Curator of Manuscripts for further information. Copies of the photos below may be purchased by contacting the reference staff. Permission to publish must be requested separately and fees for commercial publication may apply.

 

[ View the Enfield photographs ][ Part 2 ]