West Boylston before the Reservoir

Here are some more cool pictures of West Boylston before the reservoir.

First, a man drives a horse-drawn cart up a dirt road. The description attached to the photo is “Driving Up From the Valley.” The valley housed many of West Boylston’s businesses, mills, and houses; now, of course, it is the Wachusett Reservoir. Though this photograph doesn’t come with information about the cart’s location or the identity of the man driving it, it gives us a glimpse of what an average day in pre-reservoir West Boylston may have looked like.

The second photo depicts East Main Street (now underwater) looking down toward a park, visible at the end of the street on the right. The closest building on the right is Goslin’s Blacksmith shop. The next building down is a shoe shop, and the next one is a market called Sawyer’s. This street contained numerous local businesses. On the left are numerous residential buildings and a prominent stone wall in the foreground. Again, this photo doesn’t come with great detail, but it shows us a slice of what the town looked like before it was flooded.