This site is about the McGrail farm at 19 Lyman Road Berlin Massachusetts.

Bedtime Story #4

The Pumphouse, the Aquaduct, Easements and Homeland Security
I've always believed that the Wachusett Aquaduct was part of the Farm, even though the Farm property only contained two easements over it. It is part of the legacy and my memory of the Farm.
The Wachusett Aquaduct was the main pipe from the Wachusett Reservoir to the various towns that used the reservoir for their water supply. The Aquaduct itself was a huge pipe, buried under a large, grassy mound of earth, of which the top was driveable and walkable. This mound ran for many miles through many towns, and was usually fenced off, with "No Trespassing" signs around it.
However, there were easements across the Aquaduct. If you had a parcel of land which was inaccessible from the street, you were granted access to your land by a right-of-way to cross the Aquaduct. These were marked by locked gates in the fencing. My grandfather (and the present owner of the property, of course) had two gates through which he could enter the Aquaduct. In practice, when I was young, rules against trespassing on the property were not enforced, and it was not unusual to find women riding horses on it, cars on it, even snowmobiles on it in wintertime.
On the parcel of land beyond the Aquaduct lay the pumphouse and the well which supplied water to the farmhouse. The old pumphouse, partially burned in a fire in the 1950's, could only be accessed by the right-of-way. There were actually stairs down the side of the Aquaduct mound, with a bannister made out of old iron pipes painted black. This led to another gate through which you would pass to a trail in the dense underbrush. Your eyes would soon meet what looked like a tar-papered outhouse. This was the pumphouse.
It sat on top of the well. The inside was completely charred, and I was afraid of the place. The pump had been repaired after the fire, and it pumped all of the water needed by the farmhouse for many years. The sound of the pump frightened me. Pipes led over the "hump" of the Aquaduct to the farmhouse underground. The pump filled a storage tank in the main house, which in turn led to the faucets. There is, of course, no sewer service in Berlin, so there was an ill-functioning septic tank beyond the grove.
During the 1950's and 1960's, all of the grass on the mound of the Aquaduct was carefully mowed by State of Mass. workers. They would come with huge mowers a few times a year. There were often wildflowers on the Aquaduct, and you had to be wary of poison ivy. I remember many pleasant long hikes across the Aquaduct, usually on Sunday afternoons after Mass, led by my father. He would take a "shillaleigh" and told us to take one. These sticks, used in Ireland, were symbolic of a long walk.
On the other side of Linden Street, there is another entrance to the Aquaduct, and it is there that we took most of our walks. Sometimes we walked several miles down the mound. My sisters, younger than me, often accompanied us, and since they were small, soon my father could count on hearing the plaintive cry "Daddy, carry me". He would then pick up one or even two kids and carry them in his arms for the rest of the way.
The highlight of the Aquaduct walks was "Saying Hello to the Giant". A little distance beyond the Linden St. entrance, there was a valve station, constructed somewhat like a small stone castle. It had little slit windows, a padlocked cast iron door, and it was made out of hewn granite. Dad would pretend that a "Giant" lived in the "castle". He would hoist each kid up to the barred windows and pretend to be the deep voice of the "Giant". I enjoyed this, and probably beleived in the "Giant" longer than I beleived in Santa Claus.
I am still single, but my dream for many years was to propose to my intended wife while taking a walk on the Aquaduct. I believe that since Sept. 11, 2001, the restrictions on entering the Aquaduct are enforced more strictly, nevertheless, I at least want to be looking at the Aquaduct when I ask that special woman "Will You Marry Me?" Hopefully soon, I will meet a woman who is "ready for the Aquaduct".

James A. McGrail

copyright 2005, mcgrailfarm.com

Return Home