Stony Brook Timeline
Jan. 24th, 2007 09:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urbpanWhile researching earlier Urban Nature Walks involving the Muddy River, I discovered that Olmsted (the 19th century landscape architect that transformed urban America) was given the task of dealing with Stony Brook, as well as the Muddy. Both are tributaries of the Charles, but while the Muddy is the centerpiece of a major park, the Riverway, that I live next to and visit every day, I realized that I knew nothing about Stony Brook. I knew it was the name of a train stop in Jamaica Plain, but the brook itself didn't even seem to appear on maps. Then we decided to do an Urban Nature Walk at the Stony Brook Reservation, the location of the headwaters of Stony Brook, a Metropolitan Reservation (as opposed to Municipal Park) that straddles the neighborhoods of Roslindale and Hyde Park in Boston. I did some research before our walk, and turned up some interesting history.
Stony Brook and Stony Brook Reservation Timeline:
1700's-1800's: Present day Roslindale and Hyde Park were primarily rural farm areas during this time. The headwaters of Stony Brook are located on the Withington family farm.
1845: Henry Sturgis Grew (business partner of James Read, for whom Readville, an important section of Hyde Park, was named) visits Hyde Park. Impressed with the countryside he purchases 800 acres of farmland (the Withington farm) to be embellished as a wooded estate, encouraging others to visit the land. The area comes to be known as Grew's Woods.
1874: West Roxbury (which included Jamaica Plain and Roslindale) annexed by Boston.
1870's-1800's: German immigrant entrepreneurs help fuel a boom in the Boston brewery industry. Remarkably clean water attracts brewers to Stony Brook: "At its peak, there were 19 breweries between Roxbury Crossing and Forest Hills," as many of 17 of which were along Stony Brook. Haffenreffer brewery was one of these, located in present day Jamaica Plain. At one point, Boston had most breweries per capita of any U.S. city. (http://ksgaccman.harvard.edu/hotc/DisplayPlace.asp?id=11378)
1887: Bussey Bridge, an iron railway bridge crossing South Street near the present day site of the Arnold Arboretum, collapses, killing 23 commuters and injuring more than 100. This, the first major train disaster in American history brings attention to the neighborhood of Roslindale. Soon after, many people move there, in order to be surrounded by natural beauty but still be very close to Boston.
(http://www.jphs.org/victorian/bussey-bridge-train-disaster.html)
1894: Stony Brook Reservation is created from Grew's Woods, largely through the efforts of noted impressionist painter John J. Enneking, who was park commissioner for the Town of Hyde Park. At about the same time the Blue Hills Reservation and the Middlesex Fells Reservations were created.
1890's-1910's: Due to flooding concerns and sewerage issues, Stony Brook is culverted from about 1 mile from it's source (the pond known today as Turtle Pond), for 7.5 miles, where it empties into the Charles.
1912: Hyde Park annexed by Boston (last neighborhood to be annexed by Boston).
1984-1988: The Boston Beer Company, which makes Samuel Adams beers, is established in the old Haffenreffer brewery. Presumably they do not use water from Stony Brook.
2001-2006: Stony Brook Separation project in process, separating sewer lines from storm water drainage. Sewer lines are to be rerouted to Deer Island.
Other sources used:
Roslindale Historical Society: http://roslindalehistoricalsociety.org/history.htm
Jamaica Plain Historical Society: http://www.jphs.org/locales/2004/1/5/the-saga-of-stony-brook.html
Department of Conservation and Recreation: http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/metroboston/stony.htm
Hall, Wellington. Stony Brook Watershed Historical Sewer System Changes. (Powerpoint Presentation), Northeastern University 2005: www1.coe.neu.edu/~ferdi/OURCharles/Hall2005.pp
Sammaro, Anthony Mitchell. Roslindale. Arcadia Publishing: Dover, New Hampshire. 1997.: http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=arcadia&Product_Code=0738512451&Product_Count=&Category_Code=
Krieger and Kobb, eds. Mapping Boston.
So, in other words, the reason that Stony Brook doesn't appear on any maps is that it has been put under the ground in brick and concrete tubes. Storm water from the street and sewer water from homes and businesses go directly into it. A project to separate the sewer water and send it to the Deer Island Sewage Treatment Plant was slated to be finished in the fall of 2006. I could not determine if this had been done.
My pictures of the Stony Brook Reservation can be seen here, while![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cottonmanifesto's pictures are here and here.
Stony Brook and Stony Brook Reservation Timeline:
1700's-1800's: Present day Roslindale and Hyde Park were primarily rural farm areas during this time. The headwaters of Stony Brook are located on the Withington family farm.
1845: Henry Sturgis Grew (business partner of James Read, for whom Readville, an important section of Hyde Park, was named) visits Hyde Park. Impressed with the countryside he purchases 800 acres of farmland (the Withington farm) to be embellished as a wooded estate, encouraging others to visit the land. The area comes to be known as Grew's Woods.
1874: West Roxbury (which included Jamaica Plain and Roslindale) annexed by Boston.
1870's-1800's: German immigrant entrepreneurs help fuel a boom in the Boston brewery industry. Remarkably clean water attracts brewers to Stony Brook: "At its peak, there were 19 breweries between Roxbury Crossing and Forest Hills," as many of 17 of which were along Stony Brook. Haffenreffer brewery was one of these, located in present day Jamaica Plain. At one point, Boston had most breweries per capita of any U.S. city. (http://ksgaccman.harvard.edu/hotc/DisplayPlace.asp?id=11378)
1887: Bussey Bridge, an iron railway bridge crossing South Street near the present day site of the Arnold Arboretum, collapses, killing 23 commuters and injuring more than 100. This, the first major train disaster in American history brings attention to the neighborhood of Roslindale. Soon after, many people move there, in order to be surrounded by natural beauty but still be very close to Boston.
(http://www.jphs.org/victorian/bussey-bridge-train-disaster.html)
1894: Stony Brook Reservation is created from Grew's Woods, largely through the efforts of noted impressionist painter John J. Enneking, who was park commissioner for the Town of Hyde Park. At about the same time the Blue Hills Reservation and the Middlesex Fells Reservations were created.
1890's-1910's: Due to flooding concerns and sewerage issues, Stony Brook is culverted from about 1 mile from it's source (the pond known today as Turtle Pond), for 7.5 miles, where it empties into the Charles.
1912: Hyde Park annexed by Boston (last neighborhood to be annexed by Boston).
1984-1988: The Boston Beer Company, which makes Samuel Adams beers, is established in the old Haffenreffer brewery. Presumably they do not use water from Stony Brook.
2001-2006: Stony Brook Separation project in process, separating sewer lines from storm water drainage. Sewer lines are to be rerouted to Deer Island.
Other sources used:
Roslindale Historical Society: http://roslindalehistoricalsociety.org/history.htm
Jamaica Plain Historical Society: http://www.jphs.org/locales/2004/1/5/the-saga-of-stony-brook.html
Department of Conservation and Recreation: http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/metroboston/stony.htm
Hall, Wellington. Stony Brook Watershed Historical Sewer System Changes. (Powerpoint Presentation), Northeastern University 2005: www1.coe.neu.edu/~ferdi/OURCharles/Hall2005.pp
Sammaro, Anthony Mitchell. Roslindale. Arcadia Publishing: Dover, New Hampshire. 1997.: http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=arcadia&Product_Code=0738512451&Product_Count=&Category_Code=
Krieger and Kobb, eds. Mapping Boston.
So, in other words, the reason that Stony Brook doesn't appear on any maps is that it has been put under the ground in brick and concrete tubes. Storm water from the street and sewer water from homes and businesses go directly into it. A project to separate the sewer water and send it to the Deer Island Sewage Treatment Plant was slated to be finished in the fall of 2006. I could not determine if this had been done.
My pictures of the Stony Brook Reservation can be seen here, while
cottonmanifesto's pictures are here and here.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Bravo!
Date: 2007-01-24 04:07 pm (UTC)Any pointers on researching this type of thing at local historical societies? I still have a membership with mine, from a prior job where I was asked to research turn-of-the-century architecture, and whenever I'm reminded of it I think, "Too bad I'm not able to use it for anything."
Re: Bravo!
Date: 2007-01-24 04:44 pm (UTC)As far as the streams you are researching, the water that formed them in the past must still form somewhere. If they were filled in for development, the developers must have redirected the water somehow. You need to find out who owns the land that the streams were on, and who owned them in the past. There should be records (town hall or historical society) to tell you.
Re: Bravo!
Date: 2007-01-24 05:15 pm (UTC)Thanks! This may turn into my new research project -- if I turn up anything interesting about our town's natural history, I'll be sure to post :)
Re: Bravo!
Date: 2007-01-24 05:22 pm (UTC)hot on the trail...
Date: 2007-01-24 06:07 pm (UTC)Richmond's
Richmond's <a href:"http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=37.56051&lon=-77.43897&datum=nad27&u=4&layer=DRG&size=l&s=48">Battery Park neighborhood</a> flooded in the wake of Tropical Storm Ernesto last year, drenching residents in water that wasn't just full of stormfall, but polluted from an old landfill that used to be on the site. A quick glance at the topographic map gives some clues as to why, but the story of how Battery Park went from stream in the woods to scenic neighborhood to landfill and back to a scenic neighborhood is one I have yet to find out about.
More later! Thanks for the encouragement. :)
Re: hot on the trail...
Date: 2007-01-24 07:08 pm (UTC)Re: Bravo!
Date: 2007-01-24 05:29 pm (UTC)Also, Ol' Man Grew owned more than just the woods that became the reservation. I actually live on Grew Hill on the Roslindale/Hyde Park line. For many years, he shared the hill with the Hermit of Grew Hill, letting him build a little shack on the land. Our house, built in 1929, was one of the first up there after the land was subdivided (the Grew Elementary School is a couple blocks away from the entrance to the Stony Brook reservation).
Adam Gaffin
www.universalhub.com
Re: Bravo!
Date: 2007-01-24 05:36 pm (UTC)Status of Stony Brook - Storm and Sewer water
Date: 2007-01-25 06:28 pm (UTC)According to the Boston Water and Sewer Commission, Stony Brook is 95-99% (I can't remember which) Storm and Sewerage separated. This was one of the conditions that the Army Corps of Engineers put on completing the Muddy River Restoration Project - that Boston clean up Stony Brook.
If you want to find out more about the Muddy River Restoration Project you can contact me, John Pearson, Coordinator of the Maintenance and Management Oversight Committee, at:
jpearson 'at' muddyrivermmoc.org
or go to muddyrivermmoc.org (http://www.muddyrivermmoc.org)
It would be great to have the Urban Pantheist give a presentation at one of our meetings...