A substantial contemporary record of Boston’s long and contentious campaign to obtain an adequate supply of pure water, from the engineering and political debates of the 1830s to the completion and early operation of the Cochituate system. The 13 pamphlets document one of the city’s most important nineteenth-century public works, and the larger question of whether an essential service should be supplied by private enterprise or municipal government.

Background
By the 1820s, Boston’s traditional water supply was increasingly inadequate for a rapidly growing city. Most residents depended on wells and rainwater cisterns, while the privately owned Boston Aqueduct Corporation supplied a few customers with water from Jamaica Pond. Many wells produced brackish or hard water, and some were contaminated by nearby privies; rainwater collected in cisterns could also be fouled by soot and other debris. The shortage was particularly severe in poorer neighborhoods, where residents often depended on shared wells. A destructive fire on April 7, 1825, during which firefighters struggled to obtain sufficient water, helped make the problem a matter of public urgency. Physicians and reformers also argued that abundant clean water would improve health, sanitation, and everyday living conditions.

The debate was not about whether Boston needed more water, but how it should be obtained, financed, and distributed. Mayor Josiah Quincy began pressing for a municipal supply in the 1820s, and successive mayors continued the effort. Among the principal alternatives were enlarging the Jamaica Pond supply, drawing on Spot Pond and other waters north of the Charles River, taking water from the Charles itself, and constructing a more ambitious aqueduct from Long Pond, some twenty miles west of the city. The nearby sources offered lower initial costs, while proponents of Long Pond argued that its greater capacity made it better suited to Boston’s future growth.

The city’s deliberations culminated in the recommendation of Long Pond in 1844. A municipal water act was narrowly rejected by Boston voters on May 19, 1845, but a revised act passed the Massachusetts legislature on March 30, 1846, and won overwhelming approval from city voters in April of that year.

Construction began later that summer. Long Pond, renamed Lake Cochituate, supplied water through a masonry aqueduct of approximately fifteen miles to a large reservoir in Brookline, from which iron mains carried it into Boston’s distribution system. On October 25, 1848, the city celebrated the arrival of Cochituate water with a great public procession and the opening of a fountain on Boston Common.

The pamphlets gathered here follow that transformation from proposal and controversy to an operating public water system. The final report, published in 1855, extends the record into the system’s first years of operation, making the volume a substantial documentary history of Boston’s transition to modern municipal water supply. 

Contents of the volume

1. Loammi Baldwin, Esq., Civil Engineer, REPORT ON THE SUBJECT OF INTRODUCING PURE WATER INTO THE CITY OF BOSTON. Boston: John H. Eastburn, City Printer, 1834. 78pp, folding map (6 ¼”h x 19 ½”w at neat line). OCLC 35069726 et al.
2. Loammi Baldwin, Esq., Engineer, SECOND REPORT OF LOAMMI BALDWIN, ESQ. ENGINEER MADE TO A COMMITTEE OF THE BOSTON AQUEDUCT CORPORATION. Boston: Eastburn’s Press, 1835. 12pp. OCLC 36863330 et al.
3. REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS APPOINTED UNDER AN ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL, OF MARCH 16, 1837, TO DEVISE A PLAN FOR SUPPLYING THE CITY OF BOSTON WITH PURE WATER. Boston: John H. Eastburn, City Printer, 1837. 83pp. OCLC 54621834 et al.
4. R. H. Eddy, Civil Engineer, REPORT ON THE INTRODUCTION OF SOFT WATER INTO THE CITY OF BOSTON. John H. Eastburn, City Printer, 1836. 40pp., large folding map (29 ½”h x 39 ¾”w at neat line, spot color). OCLC 4411833 et al.
5. R. H. Eddy et al, Document.—No. 9. PAPERS RELATING TO THE INTRODUCTION OF PURE WATER. Boston: John H. Eastburn, City Printer, 1838. [1-front wrap],28,26,16,13pp. OCLC 46837153.
6. City Document.—No. 33. CITY OF BOSTON. WATER. [Boston, 1838.] 35pp. OCLC 83446414 et al.
7. City Document.—No. 19. CITY OF BOSTON. SOFT WATER. [Boston, 1839.] 20pp. OCLC 4428262 et al.
8. James F. Baldwin, City Document.—No. 5. CITY OF BOSTON. WATER. MR. BALDWIN’S REPORT. [Boston, 1839.] 15pp. OCLC 39780652.
9. HOUSE….. …..No. 3. AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR SUPPLYING THE CITY OF BOSTON WITH SOFT WATER. Boston, 1839. 11pp. Not in OCLC as a separate imprint.
10. STATEMENT OF EVIDENCE BEFORE THE COMMITTEE OF THE LEGISLATURE, AT THE SESSION OF 1839. ON THE PETITION OF THE CITY OF BOSTON FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF PURE SOFT WATER. Boston: John H. Eastburn, City Printer, 1839. [1],62pp. OCLC 22498094 et al.
11. City Document.—No. 24. REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS APPOINTED UNDER THE ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL, AUGUST 26, 1844, TO REPORT THE BEST MODE AND EXPENSE OF BRINGING THE WATER OF LONG POND INTO THE CITY OF BOSTON. Boston: John H. Eastburn, City Printer, 1844. [1-front wrap],30pp, folding map (8”h x 27 ½”w at neat line). Not in OCLC under this title.
12. REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS APPOINTED BY AUTHORITY OF THE CITY COUNCIL, TO EXAMINE THE SOURCES FROM WHICH A SUPPLY OF PURE WATER MAY BE OBTAINED FOR THE CITY OF BOSTON. Boston: J. H. Eastburn, City Printer, 1845. 128,xxxii pp, folding map (5 ½”h x 9 ¾”w at neat line) and 1 in-text diagram. Not in OCLC under this title.
13. City Document.—No. 9. REPORT OF THE COCHITUATE WATER BOARD, TO THE CITY COUNCIL OF BOSTON, FOR THE YEAR 1854. Boston: J. H. Eastburn, City Printer, 1855. [1-front wrap],58,33pp. Not in OCLC under this title.