So Now Where's the Stony Brook?

Every so often I keep coming across a pair of websites in Jamaica Plain that discuss the Stony Brook. The JP Historical Society discusses why the Stony Brook is no longer visible from the street, while the blog Stony Brook - Gone But Not Forgotten points out the areas in JP built just above the river. Since we all know that the Stony Brook continued through Roxbury on its way to the Charles, I figured I'd pick up where they left off and see what I could find about its course in Roxbury.

The first thing I found was an original copy of the 1865 report on sewerage for the City of Roxbury. In it, William H. Bradley writes his recommendations to George Lewis, the Mayor of Roxbury, on "diverting and regulating the channel of Stony Brook, and making it the general outlet for the sewerage of a portion of the city." The booklet contains a large fold-out map showing the area to be improved and the recommended methods for covering over the brook. If I understand the JPHS' website correctly, though, changes to the brook in Roxbury weren't done until 1871, after Roxbury had been annexed to Boston. Perhaps it was too expensive? The JPHS site notes the expense the Town of West Roxbury paid ($43,027) to control the Stony Brook from the Boston line to Hyde Park in the 1870's. However, the City of Roxbury's estimate for controlling the Stony Brook was $75,000 in 1865. After years of Civil War, it's possible that a lot of money was being diverted to the war effort, thus reducing Roxbury's ability to divert and cover the brook. Being closer to the wider end of the brook and the more flood-prone areas probably added to the expense, too.

Stony Brook - Gone But Not Forgotten provides a link to files in the Water Resources and Urban Environment report that illustrates the waterways of the Lower Charles River watershed, including the Stony Brook and its tributaries, as they flowed above ground. Before seeing this, I didn't realize that there were so many buried brooks in Boston, although it seems like many of them originated under today's Franklin Park.

What would be great to see now is a modern map showing where the brook flows under Roxbury. With all the changes caused by the abandoned I-95 highway project and the actualized Southwest Corridor project, is everything in the same place it was in the 1870s or did we move the brook again 100 years later? Anyone have a map like that?

Comments

[DotRepo]

Try messing around with BRA's Boston Atlas at http://www.mapjunction.com/bra/ There are historical maps on there that you can juxtapose with the modern ones, and for the definitive answer on where it is now, contact the MWRA.