Notice the modern Wyckoff Golf Course. The stream coming out of the golf course is Roaring Brook. This is the stream that forms Whiting Street Reservoir. It starts near Jarvis Avenue and feeds most of the water entering the reservoir. The road leading south is the Albert Steiger Road. (LOCATION) It was built in 1931 and gave the HWW a road with easy curves and winding grades.
Albert Steiger deeded the land that the road is on to the Holyoke Water Works in 1929. The road was improved with side gutters in 1938 plus a resurfacing of the road with trap rock dust. However, during the Hurricane of 1938 the road and gutters were destroyed. Thus in 1939 and 1940 this road was repaired and expanded. This road meets Easthampton Road in three fourths of a mile. Just beyond that crossing is the Old Easthampton Road. There is a long ornate masonry gateway at this old road. This gate that is still there was built in 1937 as a WPA Works Progress Administration Project. PICTURES of GATE.
In the spring of 1953, the highway was rerouted and the gate became obsolete. There was talk of building a new one but it never happened.
The brook 100 yards north of this road is the Roaring Brook that feeds the reservoir. The bridge over it was replaced in 1962.
Very Old Road from Whiting Street Reservoir to Easthampton Street
There are now three roads out of the southern part of Whiting Street Reservoir. The Steiger Road at stop 13 is the newest. Sheldon Road at stop 11 is the one of middle age. Between the two is the road that is the oldest. Its name is not known but it is on the map just above. You can still follow it to the highway. It is about 3/4th of a mile long.
Sheldon Avenue (LOCATION) was built in 1914 and is 1600 feet long and has easy grades and curves. Sheldon Avenue to Easthampton Road was once fully gated both here and at its highway entrance. These gates had swinging gates added in 1920 to prevent the public coming in when the road was soaked. By 1922 the gate was permanently locked.
It led to Route 141 but is now part of the Metacomet Monadnock Trail and which is itself part of the New England Trail (TRAIL MAP or BROCHURE). The Monadnock Trail was blazed Feb 28 1953 and led to the Metacomet Trail.
The road was named after Jesse Sheldon a water commissioner. The entire Mount Tom Range is a State Reservation since 1903. There are three trails that lead from the reservoir into the Reservation.
Whiting Street Reservoir Road to Top of the Mountain
About 500 yards from your last stop, there is the start of a trail system on the sides of Mt Tom. (LOCATION) This road allowed people to drive their car to the top of the mountain. This property is now owned by Holyoke Gas and Electric.
This path leads to the top of Mount Tom. (LOCATION) The old trolley bed is found up this trail also. To get to the mountain road walk this trail and then 10 feet along the tarred road and then a sharp left to climb the mountain. Mount Tom is 1266 feet above sea level. Climb it some day with a friend.
In 1945 electric wires were added to the roadway for developing a FM radio station on top of Mt Tom. This was called the Hampden-Hampshire Corporation.
Stop about 2/3rd up to the summit. There on July 6 1946 a B-17 transport plane crashed with all 25 men dying. There is a monument on the mountain for these military men. Beyond the mountain access road is the Mount Tom Ski Area. It started in December of 1960 for downhill skiing. Decades later an alpine slide, a wave pool, and a water slide were all put in. In 1998 all closed.
About 10 feet south of the point 8 on your map see the end of the Whiting Street Brook. Whiting Street was a farmer and investor who at his death in 1878 had left a trust fund to many communities. The reservoir and the brook are named after this person. FINDAGRAVE
The Whiting Street Brook and its tributary the Free Orchard Brook was widened and deepened in 1888 to get the work at the reservoir into gear. The brook now has its origin at the Loomis Reservoir (aka Summit Reservoir) on the mountain. The concrete sides of the brook were added in 1911 to form a channel and the concrete bottom added in 1936 and 1937. [There are extensive trails at the Mount Tom Reservation.] Loomis Reservoir was made in 1896 to get water to the hotel on top of Mount Tom. It is 125 feet by 50 feet and 9 feet deep at its maximum.
A hotel was built at the summit of Mount Tom. To get there 120 years ago you could walk, drive a car, or take the tramway. The drive up the mountain was from a trail that is about 500 yards farther along the Whiting Street road. At that point there is a tiny trail that goes up the mountain that was once used by cars.
Mountain Park Trail at the Whiting Street Reservoir
The Holyoke Catholic High School Cross Country Course starts here. It is 2.72 miles to the end point back at the stairs near the control house. The course was used for 46 years as their home course.
Mountain Park was started in 1897 as a deer park and theater. It was a trolley park. The only road entrance to the park was via this road until 1915. About 40 feet back from this point, there was the original road that circumnavigated the reservoir – Mountain Park Trail (LOCATION). It is the only part of the road that has been detoured. It originally led to the Mountain Park area. In 1909 the entire road around the reservoir was widened and hardened. As part of this roadwork in 1909 and 1910 the new path (along the water’s edge) was put in due to the congestion of parked vehicles visiting the Park. The head of the Holyoke Water Works had had it with the Mountain Park people. In 1911 a barbed wire fence was placed between the reservoir and the Mountain Park.
There is a concrete canal from both the control house and from the emergency spillway. They meet in the brush and then go the east where we just were. The two pipes from the control house are deep under ground. It leads to its surface point in one of these channels. There was an aerator with a fountain on the grass near this point. (LOCATION) It was put in in 1909 as a help to kill certain bacteria. Oxygen in water does help it taste better. Some parts of the aerator are still visible if one looks carefully. A 1906 sluiceway joins the fountain to the Intake. Also in 1906 a pipeline was added that could carry the water directly from the reservoir to downtown. This pipeline was used for a few months that summer.
The cross country course around the reservoir was used by high school runners from 1970 to 2015. It was renamed in honor of Daniel Lengieza – the coach of Holyoke Catholic High School cross country and track for 52 years – in 2018. Notice the plaque in his honor.
Notice that most of the trees around you are pine. These were mostly planted in the 1930s are WPA projects. Deciduous trees were removed in 1937 around the Whiting Street Reservoir since since leaves had to be raked out of the reservoirs, sluiceways, fountain, and brooks to keep the water from developing germs or a bad taste. Note that the pine trees were planted too close together and thus never developed nice crowns. As a result of the New England Hurricane of 1938, 1000 young pine trees were uprooted. The hurricane did drop 12 inches in one hour so this was to be expected.
This grassy area in front of the dam was also the location of an old barn and a shed, They are long gone but it would be interesting to determine if they were used by Whiting Street himself.
Hastings Brook (LOCATION) is found at the crossing of a brook over a small footbridge. This brook at one time caused much problems with the water being piped into Holyoke. It used to flood when either the brook or the spillway was very active. Its suspended load of silt and clay would get into the Intake Reservoir and cause the water to have a high turbidity. This problem was alleviated when a small dam was placed under the crossing.
The sluiceway was extended in 1935 and in 1938 to join the other sluiceway that ran from the aerator to the Intake Reservoir. In 1939 the year after the New England Hurricane caused great damage, a 36 inch pipeline was added for the 488 feet from the Hastings Brook to the Intake Reservoir. A tiny dam was added at the juncture of the two. It would release water at the bottom of the Intake in a very settled made.
(Image is courtesy of the Holyoke History Room at the Holyoke Public Library. It is from a booklet called “Souvenir by the Holyoke Water Works”.)
Roaring Brook passes under Aerator Road and is visible on both sides. Orient yourself by using the picture just above. This fenced area is the Intake Dam and its spillway. (LOCATION) It now has a culvert under the interstate. Walk toward this fence. Then walk to the left of the fence. The Intake Dam runs northeast to southwest below your feet. The octagonal gatehouse run along a separate foundation to the northwest.
The dam of the Intake Reservoir is 141 feet 9 inches long and 15 feet high. It is 12 feet thick at its base and 7 feet thick at it top. There was a small spillway on top that was 2.5 feet down. The water in Whiting Street Reservoir is 32 feet higher than in the Intake. (Whiting Street Reservoir is at 390 feet above sea level and thus Intake is at 358.) The intake was built from 1884 to 1885 with Mt Tom sandstone. After the larger dam was built, it served as a location where sediment in calm water could settle. The larger dam water was also once a year used to hose out the sediment in the Intake.
The octagonal gatehouse (18 by 14 feet) was added to the top of the dam at some point in the late 1800s. In 1919 it was rebuilt due to a fire (in 1917). This new gatehouse was built on the berm behind the modern chlorination structure. You can find its foundation about 50 feet south of the chlorination building. This gatehouse was also a guard house and was finally removed between 1965 to 1976. In 1913 the watch person at the Intake was deputized as a Holyoke police officer. See the wonderful picture at the start of this stop.
Not only did the Intake area need to be very secure but it also needed to be very clean. Brush was cleared away at a distance of 2.5 miles from the dam. Then barbed wire fencing was used to enclose 2 acres.
The modern road comes from the north and goes to the west but the old road comes from the southeast. Look in that direction between the modern chlorination plant and the brook. You will see a grass road that is about 30 yards long. This once lead to Northampton Street.
Notice the fluoridation and chlorination station to the south built in 1965 and 1970. This is the second chlorination building along the road with the first being built in 1941 but removed in 1965. There is a municipal pipe below your feet that leads to the downtown Holyoke, the Highlands, Smith Ferry and the Flats. The grassy knoll to your south is the location of the former chlorination station. Its foundation is apparent at two locations if you look carefully. The original entrance road is at the midsection of the knoll. There was also a barn in the middle western edge of the knoll for supplies.
