Living at West Parish

With long hours going into getting the West Parish site ready for construction – such as setting up berms to protect streams and ensuring campus bridges are ready to handle heavy truck traffic – it may feel to contractors and staff that they are practically “living” at West Parish Filters. But “living at work” isn’t just a turn of phrase at West Parish - there’s actually some history to it!

When the plant was originally constructed in 1909, traveling to Springfield and back each day was not as easy. Roads were still relatively primitive, and motorized vehicles were in their infancy – in fact, horses and mules were utilized heavily during construction. At the construction sites, including in the remote terrain surrounding the reservoirs and dam, rustic worker camps were established and communal living was common.

Above: A communal lunch for workers (c. 1930s) and a cabin for workers (right).

Once construction was completed, residency in the watershed and treatment plant didn’t end. In 1909 and again later in the 1930s, houses were built on the site of West Parish Filters for caretakers to provide 24/7 monitoring and operational services. Additional caretakers resided at Borden Brook Reservoir and near Cobble Mountain Reservoir. Technology has since replaced the need for resident managers at these sites, but the houses themselves remain part of the historic landscape and today’s daily operations. At West Parish, existing houses have been retrofitted as office space for the watershed management team and engineering staff overseeing the new West Parish Water Plant construction.

Top: A view across the slow sand filters from 1943 showing two caretaker houses in the distance (circled). Both structures are still present today. Bottom: A caretaker's house being constructed in the watershed near Cobble Mountain Reservoir, 1930.

Still, the houses carry many professional and family memories for generations of operators at West Parish, including their children. In fact, at the open house following the October groundbreaking, a son of a former operator came to see his childhood home for the first time since he moved away in the 1990s. One lasting memory he relayed was dashing across the top of the slow sand filters each morning and squeezing through a fence to catch the school bus on Granville Road.  

While such domestic experiences are now a relic of the past, the houses and campus of West Parish are serving as grounds for new types of memories:  being a part of building one of the largest public infrastructure projects in Western Massachusetts in generations.

Above: A former caretaker's house at West Parish, built in 1909, that now serves as office space.