Framingham Reservoir No. 2 Dam and Gatehouse

Built between 1877 and 1879, this dam and gatehouse form part of Framingham Reservoir No. 2, the southernmost of three Framingham reservoirs on the north branch of the Sudbury River. They belong to Boston's second municipal water supply, the Sudbury system, which added a large and steady source of water. The reservoirs worked as settling basins, letting heavier material sink before water moved on. The gatehouse is a rectangular building of rough-cut granite with smooth granite trim, round-arched doors and windows, a steep hipped roof, an eyebrow dormer and a brick chimney. George A. Clough, Boston City Architect, designed it, and James Fagin built it. The dam has a granite rubble masonry overfall between two earthen embankments. Inside, gates regulated flow between reservoirs and into pipes serving other parts of the system. Listing recognizes the group as an example of nineteenth-century water engineering and civic architecture. Industrial growth later made the water unsuitable, and the reservoir was taken out of service, though the structures remain intact.