The Scituate Reservoir

The Scituate Reservoir is a very historical area. It was built in 1915 because the city of Providence needed more drinking water. It destroyed 6 villages in Scituate and part of two other villages changing how Scituate would look forever.

Providence chose Scituate for their reservoir because of the Moswansicut, Pawtuxet, and Ponaganset Rivers. They took the villages over by the law of “Eminent Domain”. Some of the local townspeople went to court to try to keep their land and lost. Villages that were taken by the reservoir were: Kent, Richmond, South Scituate, Ashland, Saundersville, Rockland, Ponaganset, and parts of North Scituate and Clayville.

To build the reservoir, the Pawtuxet River was dammed at the Kent village. The Kent Dam, as the locals call it, is 3,200 feet long and 640 feet wide. It was built by hand and is made only of earth. Near this dam, the water is nearly 100 feet deep. Water from the Pawtuxet as well as the Moswansicut and Ponaganset Rivers fill the reservoir. The Kent Dam holds back 37 billion gallons of water and is officially named Gainer Dam.

To remove all the dirt as the reservoir was dug, 200 mules were used. People came from all over Rhode Island to watch the mules.

During the ten years it took to build the reservoir, 1,195 buildings were destroyed. 375 homes and 233 barns were burned, torn down or moved. 7 schools were taken. 6 churches were lost. 10 general stores were taken as well as 6 mills, 30 dairy farms, 11 ice houses, post offices, taverns, cider mills, two fire stations, and the Providence and Danielson Railroad. Every building that was taken for the construction was photographed by John R. Hess for the Water Supply Board and many were photographed by Frank Spencer of Scituate.

The Horseshoe Dam was built in 1918. It holds 421 million gallons of water. It is about fifteen feet deep. The Horseshoe Dam cost $50,000 to build. The Horseshoe Dam is located on Danielson Pike, in a place they used to call “the marshes” or “the bog meadow.”

The watershed for the reservoir is all the land around it, and it helps keep the reservoir clean. 7,000,000 evergreen trees were planted. There are 28 islands in the reservoir property. You cannot go on the reservoir property. There is “no trespassing” because the Providence Water Supply Board does not allow it and they are in charge of that land and keeping the water clean.

When the reservoir was being built there was a man named Sam Tourtellot who felt that it was wrong to have the cemeteries destroyed by the reservoir and have all the bodies stay under the reservoir. No one could come back to remember their family members. He had the bodies moved from the cemeteries that would be destroyed. They were moved to the New Rockland Cemetery. He made the areas in the New Rockland Cemetery look like the old cemeteries throughout town.

Because of this outstanding water system, over 60% of Rhode Island’s people have clean drinking water. If we didn’t have the reservoir, the mills would be run down and our town would be a mess. Scituate is beautiful because of The Scituate Reservoir.

Moswansicut Lake 2017

Barden Reservoir 2017

Route 14 Causeway

Hog Island

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© 2017 Paula DiLuglio