[City documents, 1847-1867]

City Document.— No. lI.

REPORT

JOINT SPECIAL COMMITTEE

ON

SEWERAGE.

ROXBURY:
L. B. & O. E. WESTON, PRINTERS, GUILD ROW.
1858,

GIVY OF ROXBURY.

In Common Councin, Jan. 25, 1858.

Orprrep, That so much of the address of his Honor the Mayor as
relates to Sewerage, be referred to a Joint Special Committee.

Committee on the part of the Council — Messrs. Ryrrson, BarcHELDER
and Mayatu.

In Common Councit, Feb. 1, 1858.
Passed and sent up for concurrence.
FRANKLIN WILLIAMS, Clerk.

In Boarp or AtpERMEN, Feb. 1, 1858.
Concurred, and the Mayor and Ald. Lrwis joined.
JOSEPH W. TUCKER, City Clerk.

In Boarp or ALDERMEN, Feb. 8, 1858.

OrpereED, That the Jornr SprctaL CommirrEr oN SEWERAGE be and
they hereby are authorized to employ an Engineer, to cause levels taken
and plans made in furtherance of the duties enjoined on them.

Sent down for concurrence.

JOSEPH W. TUCKER, City Clerk.

In Common Councit, Feb. 8, 1858.

Concurred.
FRANKLIN WILLIAMS, Clerk.

In Board or ALDERMEN, Oct. 25, 1858.
Tur Report of the Jomvr Sprctan CommirrEr oN SEWERAGE was read,
laid on the table, and six hundred copies ordered to be printed for the

use of the City Council.
JOSEPH W. TUCKER, City Clerk.

City of Roxbury.

In Boarp oF ALDERMEN, October 25, 1858.

The Special Joint Committee to whom was referred the
Orders, dated January 25, and Feb. 8, relating to the
subject of Sewerage, and authorizing the Committee to
employ an Engineer to take levels, and make plans, in
furtherance of the duties enjoined upon them, have at-
tended to their duty, and respectfully ask leave to

IGE Ent Ov Ey. <

Your Committee, aware of the importance to the City
of Roxbury, of the establishment of a proper and well ar-
ranged general system of sewerage, the want of which is
felt daily by all our citizens, believed that their first duty
would be to cause levels to be taken of the most impor-
tant streets by an Engineer, and their relative heights
above tide water determined with mathematical accuracy :
also the distances measured from certain points to the
most expedient outlets: and these facts and figures noted
and marked on plans, which would give on inspection, the
information which might be required for the prosecution
of the work. Accordingly, Mr. T. B. Moses has been en-
eaged from time to time in ascertaining, by measurement,
the various heights and distances, and executing the plans
for the same, — which accompany this Report. There ap-
pear to be three important natural channels for drainage

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and sewerage from the City of Roxbury — viz: Muddy
Brook, Smelt Brook, and Stony Brook.

Muddy Brook forms the western boundary of the City,
and when that part of the City, including a portion of
Washington Street, Heath Street, Francis Street, and the
villages in the neighborhood of Longwood depot, increase
in population, the value of this brook as an outlet for
drainage and sewerage will be inestimable.

Stony Brook now drains a large tract of the City, form-
ing the valley between the Highlands on the Hast, and
Parker’s Hill on the West. After it crosses the highway
at the junction of Washington and Tremont Streets, it
passes through a part of the City, which is densely popu-
lated—and along its margin are situated manufacturing es-
tablishments of various kinds. This brook crosses the
“Stony Brook Lands” in a large stone culvert built by the
City, and empties into what may be called an arm, or la-
goon, of the full basin, westerly of Tremont Street. The
expense of constructing a stone culvert, arched with stone,
of sufficient size to carry off all the water at all times,
with the right of the City, from the abuttors, to use it, or
allow it to be used as a Common Sewer— and extending
from Washington Street to the Culvert on the Stony Brook
Lands, already built, would not be large, compared with
the many advantages the City would derive from such an
undertaking. A considerable portion of this expense
should be borne by the abuttors and the manufacturing es-
tablishments along its borders, which are now dependent
on this brook as the only means for carrying off their im-
purities.

Into the Culvert, through which Stony Brook crosses
Tremont Street, a Common Sewer three feet by two in di-
ameter, may be carried along Tremont Street from Heath
Place on the one side, and from Milford Place on the other
and thus furnish an efficient channel for sewerage, not

i)
only for that considerable portion of Tremont Street, but
for streets and avenues leading into it. North of Milford
Place, it will doubtless be found expedient to carry a sim-
ilar Sewer along the street to enter the canal at the Bos-
ton boundary line.

If any legal objection to the above arrangements should
be made and sustained, which your Committee think hard-
ly possible, on the part of the owners of the low lands and
marshes, westerly of Tremont Street, there will still re-
main the mode of sewerage, pointed out by a Committee
of the City Government in 1852, viz: to construct a large
Sewer commencing at Culvert Street, and extending along
Orange Street into Cabot Street, thence across the marsh-
es easterly to Washington Street, and into the South Bay,
into which a part, or perhaps the whole of Stony Brook
may be turned. This undertaking, however, would be at-
tended with serious disadvantages. The inclination of the
Sewer would be only 1 1-4 inches in a hundred feet: if
constructed beneath a street, across the “marshes,” it
would in all likelihood require to be built on piles, and
the work would be prosecuted at a very great expense,
the distance being about 5550 feet.

Smelt Brook, takes it rise in May’s Pond, near the junc-
tion of Quincy and Warren Streets; traverses and drains
the low lands, belonging to the Roxbury Land Company;
crosses Walnut Street near Dale Street, and runs through
the valley between the Catholic Church and Shawmut Av-
enue, entering said Avenue from Circuit Street. A culvert
constructed by the City conveys the water of this stream
from Circuit Street along Shawmut Avenue to Washineton
Street, where it enters the “Sumner lot’’— thence crossing
Vernon Street, and traversing and irrigating several gar-
dens, it enters the premises of Hon. Linus B. Comins, and
running through the extent of marshes between Mr. Co.
mins’s estate and the Boston line, enters the Creek, which

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is the boundary between Boston and Roxbury, and is con-
nected with the full basin of the Mill Dam Corporation.

If an arrangement can be made with the owners of land
through which this brook passes, by which it can be used
as a Common Sewer, as well as a means of drainage of
surface water, it will serve as an important ofitlet for the
sewerage of a populous district, embracing all the streets
bordering on the valley through which it passes, and that
portion of Washington Street extending from Eliot Square
to the Boston boundary line. Or if the consent of the
abuttors can be obtained, and the brook be partially, or at
certain times only, diverted from its present course, and
carried down Washington street, thence through Hunne-
man Street, or Eustis Street, to the Canal in the South
Bay, it will serve as a seowrer to an important outlet for
drainage, and will be of much value. If neither of these
plans should prove practicable, it will be seen that Dudley
Street and the streets which lead into it, can be drained
by a trunk sewer extending from Kliot Square to Guild
Row, thence through Washington Street, and Eustis, or
Hunneman Streets. Or if circumstances should render it
more expedient, it may be carried through the whole of
Dudley Street, and connected with a large Sewer, which it
may be advisable to construct immediately, for draining
that portion of the City in the neighborhood of, and inclu-
ding, Mount Pleasant.

The City is now proprietor of a parcel of Land on the
Point, bordering on the Canal, and also of the City Dock,
which is well located as an outlet for a Common Sewer;
and a large Sewer can be easily constructed through a
gravelly and sandy soil, with a solid foundation, leading
from the corner of Hustis and Dudley Streets through
Davis Street to the City Dock; and into this Sewer a
brook, which now enters the Williams and Sumner estate

T

at the corner of Dearborn and Eustis Streets, can proba-
bly be turned, if expedient, which may prove of much ad-
vantage as a scourer. This Sewer, with connecting
branches, can drain all Mount Pleasant, a large portion of
Eustis Street, a part of Warren Street, Zeigler Street,
Mall Street, and, as already stated, the whole of Dudley
Street, if considered desirable.

The plans accompanying this Report give the heights of
many of the principal streets, (through which it is desira-
ble that Sewers should be ee above the level of the
surface of the City Dock, which is 2.38 feet above mean low

water mark. They will be found valuable for reference
whenever the question of Sewerage is brought before the
City Government.

It will be seen by these plans, that the height
of Eliot Square, above the City Dock, : oy dele Oy iets

Post Office, . : : S OOLGS
Corner of Elm and Dudley Str eets, 3 ORG
Corner of Washington and Hustis Streets, 5 PALO.
Corner of Washington and Webster Streets, . 18.10
Corner of Shawmut Avenue and Vernon Strect, 25.96
Bed of Stony Brook at Culvert near Culvert St. 6.27

Profile plans are given of the route from the Post Office
through Washington Street to Hunneman Street; thence
through Hunneman Street and Davis Street to the City
Dock. Also from the corner of Hustis and East Streets,
through Hast Street, to the City Dock. Also from the
Post Office, through Dudley Street, to Elm Street; thence
through Dearborn and Davis Streets to the City Dock.
A profile plan is also given of Tremont Street, showing
that an efficient Common Sewer for that street, and the
streets adjoining, entering into the Culvert which crosses
the street at Stony Brook, and into the Canal at the bound-

8

ary line, will be attended with no difficulty beyond the
expense.

Your Committee, after taking into consideration the
foregoing circumstances and facts, would respectfully re-
commend that some decided action be taken, and the work
of Sewerage, according to some established system, com-
menced as soon as practicable. For obvious reasons, the
outlets must first be secured, and the work there begun.
They would recommend, as an early step, that a Common
Sewer be constructed of an oval form; horizontal diameter
33 feet; vertical diameter 4 feet; built of brick Jaid in
cement, and reaching from the corner of Elm, Dudley, and
Eustis streets, through Davis Street to the City Dock —a
distance of 2,346 feet; with an inclination from a level of
3 inches to a foot, or greater if required; and which will,
probably, cost from 12 to 14,000 dollars, —a just propor-
tion of which expense should be assessed upon the abut-
tors, in accordance with the provisions of the Act of 1841,
p- 196 of Supplement of Revised Statutes. When this work
is accomplished, an outlet will be established for Sewers
and Drains, which will be of manifold advantage to differ-
ent populous sections of the City, as has already been
stated.

Your Committee would also recommend, that arrance-
ments be entered into, as soon as practicable, with the
abuttors on Stony Brook, by which that portion of it be-
tween Waitt’s Mills and the Culvert built by the City, or a
part of the same, may be walled up, covered, and used as
a Common Sewer. This, as has been shown, will prove of
sreat advantage to the public; and in this way an intolera-
ble nuisance, which has existed for years, and acted as a
barrier to the improvement of estates in that section of the
City, will be removed.

Thus two valuable outlets will be secured; and when

9

the work is judiciously commenced, it will, beyond a doubt,
be steadily prosecuted, until a good and sufficient system
of Sewerage is established over the City.

Your Committee would further recommend, that the
owners of land through which Smelt Brook passes, should
be consulted in relation to the use of that brook as a
Common Sewer, as soon as circumstances may render action
necessary. And if no satisfactory arrangements can be
made, by which it can be so used, those portions of the
City which would be benefitted by such arrangements, can
be drained by the outlets through Stony Brook or Davis
Street, as has already been suggested.

Your Committee are not prepared to designate any defi-
nite plan for the drainage of the low lands in Roxbury,
situated in the neighborhood of Fellows Street, as that
subject, in consequence of the action of the Board of Alder-
men of Roxbury last year, has deeply engaged the atten-
tion of the City Government of Boston the present year,
and it is manifest that a joint action and co-operation of
both Governments, if that can take place, will be more
efficient than ‘the action of either Government separately.
A system is suggested by the City Government of Boston,
to drain those low lands by a Common Sewer leading from
Eustis to Northampton Street, through Plymouth Street.
It may be that this mode of drainage will be approved by
the City Government of Roxbury, after due examination
and inquiry by the Committee having that matter in charge,
and that immediate action may be determined on, which
seems to be required by the exigency of the case. A Sewer
can be constructed to remove the nuisance in that quarter
without any alteration in the system of drainage suggested
in this Report.

The season is now advanced, and the Municipal year is

drawing to a close, therefore it may not be advisable to
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take any definite action in relation to the above matters
at the present time, other than to express a decided opin-
ion that the work should be commenced and carried for-
ward without further delay, and your Committee would
therefore recommend the adoption of the accompanying
Resolve.

JOHN S. SLEEPER, ]

GHORGE LEWIS,

ALBERT BATCHELDER, Vo

EBEN. RYERSON, | :

THOS. J. MAYALL, J

CAA, LOsE SURO pXeBrU aie

In Board oF ALDERMEN, Oct. 25, 1858.

Resolved, That the interests of the City require that a
sum of money, of not less than Ten Thousand Dollars, be
annually appropriated by the City Council, after the pres-
ent year, and expended for the construction of Common
Sewers, until a regular system of Sewerage shall be estab-
lished and carried into effect, through the principal public
streets.

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