Posts by Beaman Library

Here we have a pristine view of the Beaman Mill, later known as the Clarendon Mill, from the opposite side of the Mill Pond. Town founder Ezra Beaman founded the mill in the late 1700s with advice from Samuel Slater, the textile factory tycoon who is known as the “Father of the Industrial Revolution” for…

Building the reservoir took a significant environmental cost. There were the obvious casualties: trees and plants in the valley itself were cut down, their roots torn up. After the trees and buildings were gone, the reservoir’s builders dug down an extra six feet to ensure that no pollution would seep into the filled reservoir. We…

The Wachusett Reservoir took over ten years to plan and build. The process started in 1895 and didn’t end until 1908. The work required the building of new bridges, roads, and fills in addition to the obvious damming of the local rivers. Below are two pictures taken near Oakdale during the construction. These photographs were…

Below are two pictures taken near the end of the reservoir’s construction.Both of these pictures show a town in transition. In 1904 and 1905, this area transformed from a bustling downtown to the reservoir we know today. These images came from the Digital Commonwealth, an online resource with thousands of photographs from the State’s history.…

When it comes to the construction of the Wachusett Reservoir, we often see the “Before” and “After.” Below are two photographs from the “During.” The first is the shell of a family home. Some homes were taken apart piece and piece and reconstructed elsewhere. Sometimes these houses remained in town, but occasionally they were bought…