Saville Dam is an earthen

embankment dam An embankment dam is a large artificial dam. It is typically created by the placement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil or rock. It has a semi-pervious waterproof natural covering for its surface ...

with

masonry Masonry is the craft of building a structure with brick, stone, or similar material, including mortar plastering which are often laid in, bound, and pasted together by mortar (masonry), mortar. The term ''masonry'' can also refer to the buildin ...

work on the eastern branch of the

Farmington River The Farmington River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 river located in northwest Connecticut, with major tributaries extending into southwest Massach ...

in southwestern

Barkhamsted, Connecticut Barkhamsted ( ) is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. It contains seven villages: West Hill, Mallory, Barkhamsted Center, Center Hill, Washington Hill, Pleasant Valley, and Riverton. The population was 3,647 at the 2020 ...

and central

Hartland, Connecticut Hartland is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 1,901 at the 2020 census. The rural town is part of the Northwest Hills Planning Region and forms the northwestern border of Hartford County. Currently, the t ...

, dividing the latter into two villages along its hilltops, East and West Hartland. The

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

is 135 ft. (41 m) tall and 1,950 ft. (590 m) long and has an uncontrolled

spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure tha ...

on its western portion. It creates the Barkhamsted Reservoir which has a volume of and is the primary water source for

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

. Connecticut Route 318, also known as Saville Dam Road, crosses over the top of the dam. Savilledam2

In 1927, the Metropolitan District Commission began to purchase land in the present-day footprint of the dam and reservoir. Construction of the dam commenced in 1936 while land to the north was being stripped of lumber and buildings. Before the Metropolitan District Commission named the Saville Dam in 1940 in honor of its chief

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

, Caleb Mills Saville, it was referred to as the Bill's Brook Dam after the brook that ran near the site at the time. The foundations for "Bill's Brook Dam" and the diversion tunnel for the East Branch of the Farmington River were completed in August 1934. Subsequently, the East Branch was diverted into the concrete conduit at the bottom of the Bill's Brook Dam site. The dam was completed in May 1940, at a total cost for dam and reservoir of $10M. Although the Saville Dam was completed in 1940, it was not until 1948 that the Barkhamsted Reservoir finally filled to capacity. The Farmington River East Branch is impounded for nearly behind the dam, with the northernmost open waters of Barkhamsted Reservoir terminating in

just south of the

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

border. The reservoir flooded many buildings and farms of Barkhamsted, including the village of Barkhamsted Hollow.Barkhamstead from the Air, 1934 and 2004
/ref> The village of Barkhamsted Center, partially flooded, lies just to the west of the reservoir. Its remaining buildings are part of the Barkhamsted Center Historic District, listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

See also

References

Further reading