Weston Aqueduct Linear District

Running 13.5 miles from Sudbury Dam in Southborough through Framingham and Wayland to Weston, this aqueduct carried water by gravity toward metropolitan Boston. Built in 1901-1903 under Chief Engineer Frederic P. Stearns, it includes 2.3 miles of tunnel, more than nine miles of brick and concrete conduit, two steel pipe siphons, an open channel, a sixty-acre reservoir, a bridge and nine chambers. The chambers are hipped-roofed structures of orange-tan or red-orange granite with pink granite trim, designed in a simplified Renaissance Revival style by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge. Olmsted & Olmsted shaped the landscape around the channel and reservoir. The aqueduct was a subsidiary project of the third phase of the Boston water system, meeting rising demand northwest of the city. It was recognized for the variety of conduit types that met hydraulic grade needs across differing terrain, and for the coherent design of its chambers. It remains in good condition and in use for water supply.