Wrights Pond and Rock Cut Canal
The Rock Cut Canal (LOCATION) leads to the water pipe system of Holyoke. Beyond it is the water storage vats. The are over 145 miles of water mains in the city. (Mains are the pipes below the roads and does not include the branches that lead to homes.) Rock Cut Canal was blasted from bedrock in 1872. Nitroglycerin was used since dynamite had not yet been invented. Rock Cut Canal was 940 feet of open canal and 540 feet of closed canal. Rock Cut Canal is 12 feet deep and 8 feet wide. The system was constantly improved through the years.
A gatehouse was built in 1873 at the entrance from Wright’s Pond into the Rock Cut Canal. The gatehouse foundation was made of cut stone masonry and some grouted rubble. Also that year a pipeline, dam, and culvert were put into place. The top of the Wright dam was 7 feet above the pond level. The dam was of stone masonry and did have an overflow a few inches below pond level. The pipeline was one 20 inch gate placed into the gatehouse. All was ready on August 6 1873 when the water flowed from the gatehouse into the pipes.
In 1886 a second independent pipeline was added from the reservoirs to the city. This required a second gatehouse (18 by 24 feet base) to be put into place and that was done the next year.
From 1908 to 1912, an arch was placed over the Rock Cut Canal to prevent leaves from falling into it. It was made of concrete with strong side walls. This Rock Cut Arch is 16 feet high and the arch extended for 127 feet. In 1912, the Rock Cut Canal was extended backwards from the arch to the gatehouse in a canal that was 541 feet long, 14 feet wide, and 4 feet deep.
Another gatehouse was located near here and was built in 1907. It would receive water from the High Service Reservoir (McLean) via a pipeline from there.
A reservoir guard lived at a house that was started in 1912 and completed in 1913 to the south side of the modern water tanks that are in front of you. The foundation of that house is still there along with stairs. The next year a brass tablet (29 by 30 inches) was affixed to the old gatehouse at Wrights Pond. The HWW was very proud of itself and the Ashley area.
In 1923, a new 24-inch main pipe were put in place from Rock Cut Gate House to Hitchcock Street. The length was 7,420 feet. This would then connect to the 24-inch main on Maple Street.
In 1931 the West Heights pipeline was extended a mile into bedrock. A pump station was made on Homestead Avenue in a building 17 by 25 feet in the base. This system then used a large Worthington Pump to pump the water higher in elevation. In 1941 the older gatehouse was razed.
In 1947, the Ashley Ponds Meter and Chlorinating Building was built on Homestead Avenue.
In 1997 along Rock Cut Road two low service tanks of 2 million gallons each were built. In that same year at the treatment plant two tanks each of 3 million gallons were built. (see these at the next stop)
