{"nrhp_refnum":"89001524","name":"Hobbs Brook Basin Gate House","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"Off Winter St. at mouth of Hobbs Brook","address_restricted":false,"city":"Waltham","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.398749674000044,"lon":-71.27317357199996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1989-09-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small square granite gate house on Winter Street in Waltham, Massachusetts, built about 1897-1898 beside the Hobbs Brook Basin dam as part of the City of Cambridge water supply.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is the only part of the Cambridge water system lying wholly within Waltham and the only late 19th century reservoir gate house in the city. It is described as an excellent, well-preserved example of a water supply gate house and a unique architectural type in Waltham. It is argued to meet criteria A and C.","narrative":"Beside the Winter Street dam in Waltham sits a small square gate house of rock-faced granite, linked to the dam by a short wooden bridge. Built about 1897-1898, it holds the sluice gates for the Hobbs Brook Storage Basin, a reservoir of roughly 1,000 acres that supplies water to the City of Cambridge. The structure has a granite platform and a one-story body with tall, narrow arched openings edged in rock-faced blocks, set against hammered granite upper walls. A flat roof with a bracketed cornice and copper balustrade completes it. Waltham builder Marshall N. Stearns carried out the work, and he also built the Stony Brook Basin Gate House in Weston. The reservoir was built in 1894-1898 and required Cambridge to buy forty-three farms and parts of farms. This gate house is the only piece of the system within Waltham and the city's only late 19th century reservoir gate house. It remains unaltered, in good condition, and still in service.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Marshall N. Stearns (Waltham builder)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Condition is stated as good, with no alterations and not moved. The Hobbs Brook Basin continues to serve Cambridge as a water source.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:02.292411-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/33/7919/63791933/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/89001524.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001524/bde119bf43-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001524/bde119bf43-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WalthamMA_HobbsBrookBasinGateHouse.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Magicpiano</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WalthamMA_HobbsBrookBasinGateHouse.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63791933","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbs_Brook_Basin_Gate_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5874862"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/hobbs-brook-basin-gate-house-89001524/"}