Stony Brook (Boston)

Stony Brook is a major watercourse, now almost entirely covered, in the city of Boston, USA. It runs through a culvert for 7.5 miles, along almost its entire length; despite being underground, it is the largest tributary stream of the lower Charles River.^[1] It originates at Turtle Pond in the Stony Brook Reservation; it flows through Hyde Park, Roslindale, Jamaica Plain, and Roxbury. It empties into the Charles River Basin just upstream of the Massachusetts Avenue bridge; it formerly emptied into the Back Bay when that was a tidal estuary of the Charles River.

In the 18th century, water-powered industry grew up along it (including Pierpoint('s) Mill^[2]) and it served as the sewer (excluding human waste) for the neighborhoods it ran through.

The Boston and Providence Railroad (now the Providence/Stoughton Line) was built along the valley of Stony Brook in 1834.

In the 19th century, many breweries and other industries grew up along Stony Brook.^[3]

In the late 19th century, various parts of Stony Brook were converted into underground culverts or sewers. In around 1882, the Back Bay Fens were dredged to convert them into a holding basin for storm overflow from Stony Brook, following Olmsted's plan, and at around the same time its waters were diverted into an intercepting sewer near the current Ruggles Station.

Stony Brook enters the sewer system

Notes

↑ Weiskel, Peter K.; Barlow, Lora K.; Smieszek, Tomas W. "Water Resources and the Urban Environment, Lower Charles River Watershed, Massachusetts, 1630–2005". CIR 1280, Water Resources and the Urban Environment, Lower Charles River Watershed, Massachusetts, 1630–2005. US Geological Survey, US Department of the Interior. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
↑ "Boston, its environs and harbour, with the rebels works raised against that town in 1775, from the observations of Lieut. Page of His Majesty's Corps of Engineers, and from those of other gentlemen"
↑ "Stony Brook", Heart of the City Project, Center for Urban and Regional Policy, Northeastern University, a database of greenspaces in Boston: http://ksgaccman.harvard.edu/hotc/DisplayPlace.asp?id=11378

References

Weiskel, Peter K.; Barlow, Lora K.; Smieszek, Tomas W. "Water Resources and the Urban Environment, Lower Charles River Watershed, Massachusetts, 1630–2005": U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1280, 46 pages. CIR 1280, Water Resources and the Urban Environment, Lower Charles River Watershed, Massachusetts, 1630–2005. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
"Annual Report of the Street Department", February 1, 1892 in Documents of the City of Boston for the Year 1892, 2:110 at Google Books
Alex Krieger, David A. Cobb, and Amy Turner, Mapping Boston, p. 131ff
"A Sewer Runs Through It", The City Record and Boston News-Letter, blog page
"The Stony Brook During a Flood, c. 1890", The City Record and Boston News-Letter, blog page
Edwin Munroe Bacon, Walks and rides in the country round about Boston full text

External links

W.H. Marx, "The Saga of Stony Brook", Jamaica Plain Historical Society http://www.jphs.org/locales/2004/1/5/the-saga-of-stony-brook.html
A blog devoted to Stony Brook: http://stonybrookinboston.blogspot.com/

Coordinates: 42°20′20″N 71°05′10″W / 42.339°N 71.086°W / 42.339; -71.086

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[Weiskel,_P.K.,_Barlow,_L.K.,_Smieszek,_T.W.,_2005-1] Weiskel, Peter K.; Barlow, Lora K.; Smieszek, Tomas W. "Water Resources and the Urban Environment, Lower Charles River Watershed, Massachusetts, 1630–2005". CIR 1280, Water Resources and the Urban Environment, Lower Charles River Watershed, Massachusetts, 1630–2005. US Geological Survey, US Department of the Interior. Retrieved 2 September 2017.

[2] "Boston, its environs and harbour, with the rebels works raised against that town in 1775, from the observations of Lieut. Page of His Majesty's Corps of Engineers, and from those of other gentlemen"

[3] "Stony Brook", Heart of the City Project, Center for Urban and Regional Policy, Northeastern University, a database of greenspaces in Boston: http://ksgaccman.harvard.edu/hotc/DisplayPlace.asp?id=11378

Rivers of Massachusetts
Atlantic Ocean	Tiasquam River
Buzzards Bay	Acushnet River Agawam River Back River Copicut River Crooked River Mattapoisett River Nasketucket River Paskamanset River Pocasset River Sippican River Slocums River Wankinco River Westport River Weweantic River
Cape Cod Bay	Eel River Herring River Jones River Little Pamet River Pamet River Town Brook
Connecticut River Watershed	Burnshirt River Chapel Brook Chicopee River Connecticut River Cranberry River Deerfield River East Brookfield River Farmington River Fall River Five Mile River Green River Hubbard River Manhan River Mill River (Northampton) Mill River (Springfield) Millers River Mirey Brook North Branch Millers River North Branch Westfield River North River Otter River Quaboag River Scantic River Seven Mile River Tarbell Brook Ware River Westfield River
Gulf of Maine	Annisquam River Blackwater River Eagle Hill River Egypt River Ipswich River Jericho Creek Roger Island River Rowley River Skug River
Housatonic River Watershed	Housatonic River Konkapot River Schenob Brook Umpachene River
Hudson River Watershed	Hoosic River Kinderhook Creek
Massachusetts Bay	Aberjona River Alewife Brook Canton River Charles River Chelsea Creek Cochato River Fore River Fresh River Indian Head River Malden River Millers River Monatiquot River Mother Brook Muddy River Mystic River Neponset River North River Saugus River Stony Brook (Boston) Stony Brook (Waltham) Stop River Weir River Weymouth Back River
Merrimack River Watershed	Artichoke River Assabet River Back River Beaver Brook Cochichewick River Concord River Little River Merrimack River Nashua River Nissitissit River North Nashua River Phillips Brook Powwow River Quinapoxet River Salmon Brook Shawsheen River South Branch Souhegan River South Nashua River Spicket River Squannacook River Stillwater River Sudbury River Trout Brook Vine Brook Whitman River
Nantucket Sound	Bass River Bumps River Childs River Coonamesset River Mashpee River Mitchell River Oyster Pond River Popponesset Creek Quashnet River Santuit River
Narragansett Bay	Barrington River Cole River Coles Brook Kickamuit River Lees River Palmer River Runnins River
Providence River Watershed	Abbott Run Blackstone River Bungay River Chockalog River Mill River Mumford River Peters River Quinsigamond River Sevenmile River Tannery River Ten Mile River Thacher River West River Wilde River
Taunton River Watershed	Assonet River Canoe River Cedar Swamp River Cocasset River Cotley River Forge River Hockomock River Matfield River Mill River Nemasket River Poor Meadow Brook Quequechan River Rumford River Salisbury Plain River Satucket River Segreganset River Shumatuscacant River Snake River Taunton River Three Mile River Town River Wading River Winnetuxet River
Thames River Watershed	French River Quinebaug River