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Photo, Print, Drawing Cochituate Aqueduct, Lake Cochituate Gatehouse, Lake Cochituate State Park, Natick, Middlesex County, MA Inlet Gatehouse on Lake Cochituate Water Supply System of Metropolitan Boston

[ Data Pages from Survey HAER MA-174  ]

About this Item

Title

  • Cochituate Aqueduct, Lake Cochituate Gatehouse, Lake Cochituate State Park, Natick, Middlesex County, MA

Other Title

  • Inlet Gatehouse on Lake Cochituate Water Supply System of Metropolitan Boston

Names

  • Historic American Engineering Record, creator
  • Chesbrough, Ellis S
  • Jervis, John B
  • Price, Virginia B, transmitter
  • Ferriss, Lori, historian

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1968

Headings

  • -  aqueducts
  • -  water supply
  • -  stonework (granite)
  • -  wrought iron
  • -  Howe trusses
  • -  Massachusetts--Middlesex County--Natick

Latitude / Longitude

  • 42.31482,-71.372015

Notes

  • -  Significance: The Inlet Gatehouse of the Cochituate Aqueduct is one of three major above-ground components of the aqueduct, features that also include the Lower or Principal Gatehouse in Brookline and the bridge over the Charles River. As part of the Boston’s first public waterworks and only the second municipal system constructed in the United States, the Inlet Gatehouse is an important part of an engineering feat that married grandeur and public good to create a “visual utility” or “urban democracy” in the words of historian Carl Smith. Both gatehouses embraced classical architectural tenets and quality materials that lent the buildings solidarity in form and bespoke of civic solidarity or commitment to the people of Boston. The Inlet Gatehouse has wrought iron trusses and originally was covered in a tin roof. With the Lower or Principal Gatehouse in Brookline, the Inlet Gatehouse on Lake Cochituate attests to the early use of wrought iron in a structural capacity and the survival of the trusses provides vital evidence in the trajectory of architectural and engineering history. The Brookline Reservoir Gatehouse has twenty-one wrought iron trusses, likely prefabricated and most certainly produced in an industrialized or standardized fashion given their uniformity and the absence of connection details. The upper and lower chords of each truss are riveted, and the ends rest on the granite walls, instead of an intermediary plate. Tie beams hold the trusses in place in relation to each other and together the truss system supports the wrought iron plate roof. Clips to fasten the top chord to the plate roof are present, but not systematically placed which suggests they may not be original. In contrast, the wrought iron trusses of the Lake Cochiutate Gatehouse support a hip roof that was covered with a wood roof deck covered in turn by tin surface. The hip roof structure dictated three Howe truss forms be used, with two hip trusses to either end. The wrought iron trusses and rafters joined a wall plate. These trusses have “blacksmithed” connection details, such as mortise and tenons and hooks, and each varies in cross section. Because there are fewer trusses upholding the roof, the cross sections are greater than those seen in Brookline and the framing members are more substantial. The wrought iron trusses of the gatehouses, therefore, represent a transition in the engineering that shifted from a more craftsman or carpentry assembly to a prefabricated and self-contained truss form secured by rivets. Specifications for wrought iron trusses were fulfilled through evolving construction and manufacturing techniques and this shift punctuated the Cochituate Aqueduct. Both gatehouses were constructed in the 1847 to 1848 period, under the direction of the engineer Ellis Sylvester Chesbrough. John Bloomfield Jervis oversaw the plan for the Cochituate Aqueduct, consulting on the Boston project and drawing on his experience building New York’s Croton Aqueduct and his work with the Erie Canal, but Chesbrough engineered and built the western portions of the aqueduct. Chesbrough’s counterpart for the eastern section was William Whitwell.
  • -  Survey number: HAER MA-174
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1847-1848 Initial Construction
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1903 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1915 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1859 Subsequent Work

Medium

  • Data Page(s): 6

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HAER MA-174

Source Collection

  • Historic American Engineering Record (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • ma1829

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • pdf

Rights & Access

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Engineering Record, Creator, Ellis S Chesbrough, John B Jervis, and Lori Ferriss. Cochituate Aqueduct, Lake Cochituate Gatehouse, Lake Cochituate State Park, Natick, Middlesex County, MA. Massachusetts Middlesex County Natick, 1968. translateds by Price, Virginia Bmitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/ma1829/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Engineering Record, C., Chesbrough, E. S., Jervis, J. B. & Ferriss, L. (1968) Cochituate Aqueduct, Lake Cochituate Gatehouse, Lake Cochituate State Park, Natick, Middlesex County, MA. Massachusetts Middlesex County Natick, 1968. Price, V. B., trans Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/ma1829/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Engineering Record, Creator, et al. Cochituate Aqueduct, Lake Cochituate Gatehouse, Lake Cochituate State Park, Natick, Middlesex County, MA. trans by Price, Virginia Bmitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <aj.sunback.homes/item/ma1829/>.