M H C 005-0001 Salem WNH.162 ASSACHUSETTS ISTORICAL ... Town W… · canal (1.59 miles in Wenham)...

Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. 12/12

FORM B BUILDING

MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION

MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING

220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125

Photograph

West and south elevations. Original, hipped-roof section at left. Ell at right.

Locus Map

See continuation sheet

Recorded by: Stacy Spies

Organization: Wenham Historical Commission

Date: June 2017

Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number

005-0001 Salem WNH.162

WNH.909

Town/City: Wenham

Place: (neighborhood or village):

Address: Old Town Way

Historic Name: Salem and Beverly Water Supply Board Pumping Station and Wenham Canal Uses: Present: Pumping Station and Canal

Original: Pumping Station and Canal

Date of Construction: 1915

Source: Department of Health Annual Report

Style/Form: No style

Architect/Builder: Allen Hazen & Guy C. Emerson, Hazen and Whipple, C.E. Exterior Material:

Foundation: Poured Concrete

Wall/Trim: Poured Concrete; wood trim

Roof: Asphalt Shingle

Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: none

Major Alterations (with dates): Gable-roof lateral ell added

to southeast elevation (early 20th C); Wood brackets attached under eaves (early 20th C); windows removed or replaced (Mid-20th C).

Condition: Good

Moved: no yes Date:

Acreage: 232 acres

Setting: Located at the southern edge of the heavily wooded Wenham Swamp, the pumping station borders residential development to its east and south.

INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET WENHAM WENHAM CANAL

MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.

220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125

Continuation sheet 1

WNH.162 WNH.909

Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.

Use as much space as necessary to complete the following entries, allowing text to flow onto additional continuation sheets.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community.

The Wenham Canal and Pumping Station, Old Town Way (1915) (WNH.162 and WNH.909) consist of a 1.92 mile long earthen canal (1.59 miles in Wenham) and a concrete pumping station at its southern end at Old Town Way near Cherry Street. The canal is lined by grass-covered earthen berms. The Pumping Station is a monolithic reinforced poured concrete structure capped by a hipped roof. Large curved wood brackets bolted to the building fill the deep eaves. A small square window opening, closed with plywood, is located on the west elevation. A metal door is located at the east end of the south elevation. A photograph included in a 1915 paper describing the project illustrates that the hipped-roof section of the pumping house was the first to be constructed and did not initially include the wood brackets under the eaves.1 A run of poured concrete stairs with a metal pipe railing is located at the southwest corner of the building. Heavy double-leaf metal doors are located throughout the building. A gable-roof lateral ell extends from the east elevation of the pumping station. The southeast end of the building has overhanging eaves and four window openings. On the ell, a modest hipped-roof hood supported by curved concrete brackets is located above the entrance on the south elevation. The modest stylistic features such as the curved concrete brackets likely indicate that the ell was constructed not long after the original hipped-roof building.

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local (or state) history. Include uses of the building, and the role(s) the

owners/occupants played within the community.

In 1850, the City of Salem petitioned the state legislature to use Wenham Lake as a water source. Through an 1864 state act, Beverly and Salem were allowed to use the lake and water use began in 1868. Beverly built a system for its own use in 1868-1867, and thereafter, both cities independently drew their supplies from Wenham Lake. As water consumption increased, the water board dammed Miles River in Wenham Neck in 1895 to create the Longham Reservoir, located west of Dodges Row in Wenham. In this effort, 140 acres in Wenham were in use to supply water to Salem and Beverly. By 1912, the prospect of a water shortage had become so critical that the Massachusetts legislature appointed a special commission to examine the question of water supplies for Salem and Beverly. Allen Hazen (1869-1930) served as consulting engineer to the commission. Guy C. Emerson (1867-1939) was engineer for the commission. The commission recommended that the two cities should take their water from the Ipswich River but did not make recommendations on how this would happen leaving the decision to the Salem and Beverly Water Supply Board to decide how this project might come about. In December of 1914, the Salem and Beverly Water Supply Board, organized under chapter 700 of the Acts of 1913, applied to the State Department of Health to divert water from the Ipswich River to Wenham Lake. The Salem and Beverly Water Supply Board engaged Allen Hazen’s firm, Hazen & Whipple, to investigate and make proposals. The 1915 application was approved and the Salem and Beverly Water Supply Board hired Hazen & Whipple to prepare plans for the new system in the fall of 1914.2 Instead of pumping water the approximately two miles from the river to Wenham Lake, the flat terrain of the Wenham Swamp suggested to the engineers that it would be much cheaper to build a canal to carry large quantities of water to the edge of the swamp nearest Wenham Lake.

1 Francis F. Longley, C.E. “The Water Supply of Salem and Beverly” in Journal of the New England Water Works Association.” Vol. 30 (1916): 45, Plate 2, Fig. 1. 2 Ibid. p. 40.





WNH.162 WNH.909

The application describes the proposed canal and pumping station as: “…a proposed canal extending from a point near the right or eastern bank of the Ipswich River about 4,200 feet below the point where it is crossed by the Newburyport turnpike to a proposed pumping station to be located about 700 feet northwest of Cherry Street; thence a force main to southeast of Cherry Street whence an open channel… [leads] to an outlet on the southerly side of Cedar Street at the edge of a shallow basin connecting with Wenham Lake.”3

The intake station at the south end of the lake (BEV.939) pulled water into the pumping stations in Beverly for distribution to Beverly and Salem. The swamp was cleared of trees and vegetation in the winter of 1914-1915. The contract to dig the canal was let in the spring of 1915 to F.T. Ley & Co. of Springfield, Massachusetts and work was completed in 1915.4 The estimated construction cost, including land acquisition and right-of-way as well as engineering fees, was $99,000.5

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Beers, D.G. & Co. Atlas of Essex County, Massachusetts. 1872. Longley, Francis F. “The Water Supply of Salem and Beverly.” Journal of the New England Water Works Association. March

1916: 34-35. (Publication of paper presented September 7, 1915.) Massachusetts Historical Commission MACRIS: Salem and Beverly Water Works BEV.Q. Massachusetts State Department of Health. First Annual Report. Boston: Wright and Potter Printing Co., State Printers, 1916:

P.128-130. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc2.ark:/13960/t3223mf48;view=2up;seq=140;size=150 Phillips, John. Wenham Great Pond. Salem: Peabody Museum, 1938. Walker, George H. & Co., Atlas of Essex County. Boston: George H. Walker & Co., 1884. Walker Lithography and Publishing Company. Atlas of the Towns of Topsfield, Ipswich, Essex, Hamilton and Wenham, Essex

County, Massachusetts. Boston: Walker Lithography & Co., 1910. Wenham Historical Association & Museum, Inc. Wenham in Pictures and Prose. Wenham: Wenham Historical Association &

Museum. 1992. Wenham Tax Assessor records.

3 First Annual Report of the State Department of Health, 1916: p. 129. 4 Longley: 41. 5 Ibid., 43.





WNH.162 WNH.909

LOCUS MAP

Map numbers are last digits of lot numbers, not street numbers.

Pumping

Station

WNH.162

Wenham Canal

WNH.909





WNH.162 WNH.909

AERIAL VIEW

SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES

Wenham Canal. View looking northwest from pumping station.

Pumping Station: Ell; South elevation, entrance detail.

Pumping Station





WNH.162 WNH.909

Original building, bracket detail.





WNH.162 WNH.909

National Register of Historic Places Criteria Statement Form

Check all that apply:

Individually eligible Eligible only in a historic district

Contributing to a potential historic district Potential historic district

Criteria: A B C D

Criteria Considerations: A B C D E F G

Statement of Significance by____Stacy Spies ___________________________ The criteria that are checked in the above sections must be justified here.

Wenham Canal is a distinctive example of large-scale water supply design. The Wenham Canal and Pumping Station should be considered for National Register eligibility as part of the Salem and Beverly Water Supply Waterworks in Beverly. (BEV.Q and BEV.937, BEV.938, BEV.939, BEV.940, and, BEV.941) The Wenham Canal and Pumping Station retain integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association and meet Criteria A and C.

M H C 005-0001 Salem WNH.162 ASSACHUSETTS ISTORICAL ... Town W… · canal (1.59 miles in Wenham)...

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Transcript of M H C 005-0001 Salem WNH.162 ASSACHUSETTS ISTORICAL ... Town W… · canal (1.59 miles in Wenham)...