A PUBLICATION OF SPRING 2008 Celebrating 20 years of Advocacy, Education and Outreach “Place is the vessel Place Fisher Hill Reservoir: in which the spirit of community is kept.” History of Two Discrete Projects and One Public Park From a speech delivered in By Edward Hsieh Boston by Donald Rypkema, consultant to the National Trust n June of 2001, the Town of Brookline was Hyslop, Benjamin Goddard, Henry Lee, Joseph H. for Historic Preservation, at offered the prime opportunity of acquiring White and Jacob Pierce. In 1884, several residents the 1999 Annual Meeting of Ithe 10-acre, State-owned Fisher Hill Reservoir hired the firm of Frederick Law Olmsted to create that sits across the street from the 4.8-acre covered a development plan for Fisher Hill. The resultant HistoricMassachusetts (HM) reservoir owned by the Town. This large open subdivision is today the most unchanged Olmsted space, nestled within designed subdivision in the an historic area of our country, leading to Fisher community, has been Hill garnering recognition as of interest to the Town a National Register Historic for over two decades District in 1984. and has been explicitly Initial construction of mentioned as a target the reservoir which strad- for acquisition in the dles Fisher Hill Avenue Open Space Plan 2000 commenced during the same and Open Space Plan period that Olmsted was 2005. Since the offer, the brought in to create a design. PLACE is published twice Town has been active In 1875, the underground a year, in spring and fall, by in reviewing poten- reservoirs located on what is Brookline GreenSpace Alliance, tial plans for both the now the Town-owned site to 370 Washington Street, State-owned and Town- the East of Fisher Hill Avenue Brookline, MA 02445 owned reservoirs in were built as a back-up water Fisher Hill while moving supply for Brookline and forward on acquiring supplied by water pumped the State-owned site. from the Charles River. In Unfortunately, some are 1884, the State-owned site was concerned that develop- developed by Boston as part ment of the State-owned Graphic of the proposed design for the State-owned of a plan to address the rapid site has become too Reservoir Site. Courtesy Town of Brookline. influx of population to Boston dependent on the devel- due to the Irish Potato Famine of 1843-45. opment of the Town-owned site. Inside Planners had thought that the Cochituate System, Brookline’s Water 3 HISTORY OF FISHER HILL RESERVOIR which was built to supplement waning supplies for Updates The Fisher Hill Reservoir sits within one of the Boston, would be sufficient for the years to come Beacon Street 6 most storied subdivisions in Brookline. The subdi- Mudddy River 6 following its establishment in 1845, but by 1870 the Longwood Medical Area 7 vision defined by Boylston Street on the south, sharp increase in population merited the imple- BGSA 8 MBTA tracks on the north, Chestnut Hill Avenue mentation of a four pressure zone system. Sustainability 9 on the west and Cypress Street on the east has By diverting the Sudbury River and leveraging the Phone: 617.277.4777 served as the home of some of the most prominent existing Cochituate Aqueduct, the planners were Web: www.brooklinegreenspace.org and forward-thinking individuals in the history of Brookline, including Dr. Zabdiel Boylston, William (Continued on page 4) Board Members Officers Arlene Mattison, President Anita Johnson, Vice President Marian Lazar, V.P.-Publications Sounds and Scenes Family Festival Deirdre Buckley, Secretary A Celebration of Music and Landscape Ron Brown, Treasurer Directors Matt Alvarado Tony Andreadis Allerton Overlook, Leverett Pond, in Olmsted Park Harry Bohrs Saturday June 7, 10:00 am to 1:00 pm Kate Bowditch Mary Dewart Frances Shedd Fisher Featuring Betsy Shure Gross Activities for children ages 3 to 10, plus guided walks Seth Kaplan Larry Koff Concerts at 10:00 am, 11:00 am and 12 noon Werner Lohe Hugh Mattison Hear Maria Sangiolo, Brookline Music School Faculty and Merelice Ryan Pace Lorraine and Bennett Hammond! Fred Perry Sue B. Reamer Deborah Rivers Organizing Sponsor Gregg Shapiro Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site Jean Stringham Ronny Sydney Jay Veevers Participating Sponsors Donald Weitzman Brookline GreenSpace Alliance Bruce Wolff Advisors Alliance members – High Street Hill Association Michael Berger Friends of Leverett Pond Isabella Callanan Michael Dukakis Corliss Engle Friends of Fairsted Chobee Hoy Member Organizations Brookline Farmers’ Market Immediately following Sounds and Scenes Brookline Soccer Club Brookline Village Coalition Brookline GreenSpace Alliance will lead Brookline Youth Baseball Campaign to Preserve St. Aidan’s Chestnut Hill Garden Club Chestnut Hill Village Alliance Sounds of Spring Climate Change Action Brookline Fisher Hill Association A two mile walk beginning at 1:00 p.m. at Allerton Overlook in Olmsted Park Friends of Billy Ward Playground Friends of Boylston Playground Assoc. (intersection of Allerton Street and Pond Avenue, Brookline) Friends of Brookline Reservoir Friends of Carlton Street Footbridge Friends of Corey Hill Park Friends of Cypress Field Friends of Dane Park Friends of Emerson Garden Friends of Fairsted Friends of Griggs Park Friends of Hall’s Pond Friends of Harry Downes Field Friends of Hoar Sanctuary Friends of Larz Anderson Park Friends of Lawrence Park Friends of Leverett Pond Friends of Linden Park Friends of Littlefield Park Friends of Lost Pond Friends of Minot Rose Garden Friends of Monmouth Park Scheduled for publication this fall Friends of the Muddy River Friends of the Old Burying Ground Landscapes of Brookline – An Enduring Legacy Friends of Sargent Pond Garden Club of Brookline Contemporary photographs of historic landscapes High Street Hill Association Lincoln School PTO Landscape Committee by Brookline photographers Linden Parks Association Museum of Transportation Putterham Garden Club Frances Shedd Fisher, Marian Lazar, Jean Stringham, Restore Olmsted’s Waterway Coalition Salisbury Road-Corey Farms Bruce Wolff and Judy Wong Neighborhood Association Editor PLACE A publication of Brookline GreenSpace Alliance Frances Shedd Fisher Executive Director Edward Hsieh GROWING GREENSPACE BGSA is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization An Annual Garden Party Fundraising Event u June 22 under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Call 617 277-4777 for ticket information. Code. Donations are tax deductible. 2 What About Brookline’s Water? by Frances Shedd Fisher ater – H20 – essential, mythical, described as “tasting as if it had come out of (pop. 50,000) was faced with water quality purifying, covers about 70% of 40 feet of new garden hose.” and capacity issues. Another source of water Wthe earth’s surface. In poetical NBC also reported that scientific tests show was needed. terms water represents “the dailiness of life.” that bottled water is no better for you than In 1845, a tributary of the Sudbury River was Scarcity due to drought, development and tap water and in many areas you can buy impounded to create Lake Cochituate which geography have led to conflict in other areas 1,000 gallons of tap water for the price of one then became the cornerstone of the Boston while, in our area, due to a combination of bottle of “spring” water. Americans spend $30 water system. The Cochituate Aqueduct luck and planning, water is still abundant billion a year on bottled water and, accord- was completed to transport water to the and pure. ing to one report, 47 million gallons of oil are Brookline Reservoir from which pipelines Water in Brookline is supplied by the consumed annually to produce the bottles it were constructed to small distribution Massachusetts Water Resources Authority comes in. reservoirs in all parts of the city. The first (MWRA) which supplies water to munici- Water standards and safety water from Lake Cochituate flowed into the palities in greater Boston and the MetroWest The MWRA is, of course, responsible for Frog Pond on Boston Common in 1848 at areas. MWRA's water comes from the assuring drinking water meets strict state and a dedication ceremony which drew 100,000 Quabbin Reservoir, about 65 miles west of federal regulations. Water is treated at the new people. (Brookline Reservoir is, of course, Boston, and the Wachusett Reservoir, about Carroll Water Treatment Plant at Walnut Hill now a public park.) 35 miles west of Boston. The Quabbin alone in Marlborough. At the plant, water is disin- Need for water grew with Boston area can hold a 4-year supply of water. fected with ozone gas bubbles, chloramines Quabbin Reservoir was Boston’s fourth The reservoirs are filled naturally by rain are added to protect water from potential westward reach for a pure upland source of and snowfall onto protected land near the contamination, and fluoride is added for water that could be delivered by gravity and reservoirs, eventually running into streams healthy teeth. MWRA water is naturally lead not require filtration. Construction of the that flow into the reservoirs. The water in free and, according to a March 2008 press Quabbin required impoundment of the Swift the Quabbin and Wachusett Reservoirs is release responding to questions about trace River and the taking of the towns of Dana, considered to be of very high quality. Over elements of pharmaceuticals reported to have Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott. 85% of the watershed lands that surround the been found in U. S. drinking water, “based Construction began in 1936; filling reservoirs are covered in forest and wetlands, on what the most current research indicates commenced in 1939 and was completed in about 75% of which cannot be built on, about the sources of these chemicals, MWRA 1946. At the time, the 412 billion gallon keeping the water supply clean and clear. The believes there is little possibility for them reservoir was the largest man-made reser- streams and the reservoirs are tested often to be present in our drinking water.