Winsted Water Works Earns Place on National Historic Register

There’s a new Connecticut entry on the National Register of Historic Places - Winsted Water Works.

The historic district encompasses approximately 210 acres of upland and water bodies in the Mad River watershed of northwestern Connecticut and includes three stone and earth dams, two earth dikes, an earth and granite canal aqueduct, a tunnel aqueduct, and two artificial reservoirs constructed from 1893 to 1895.

The town was notified of the designation last month by the State Historic Preservation Office and the Department of Economic and Community Development.

The water works is significant for its role in the development of Winsted as a commercial center. It is also significant for its contribution to engineering as a large group of dams, aqueducts and reservoirs designed for the purpose of municipal water supply.

It is not the only historic location in the Connecticut town - the Water Works joins Winsted Hosiery Mill, Winsted Green Historic District, Winchester Soldiers’ Monument and Gilbert Clock Factory on the historic register.  There are more than 1600 Connecticut sites that have earned the designation, including just over 170 in Litchfield County. 

The National Register of Historic Places is the nation's official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation because of their significance in American life. This list is part of a federal program that coordinates and supports public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect our historic and archaeological assets.

The borough of Winsted was authorized to construct the water works in 1860 and built a gravity system that began service on Nov. 10, 1862. The works were constructed at a cost of $100,000 and, in 1881, had 10 miles of pipe. The town of Winchester took over the Water Works in 1915 when it merged with the borough of Winsted, according to the Waterbury Republican-American.

In the Statement of Integrity accompanying the designation, it was noted that “The Winsted Water Works system retains integrity of overall design, workmanship, and materials, along with the function of the Winsted Water Works system, with the overall system and individual structures and operations remains largely unchanged and in continuous usage from its late nineteenth-century origins.”

“The system retains integrity of setting, feeling, association, and location, as all historic components of the system are extant and in fair to good condition, retaining the original relationship to the Mad River and of municipal engineering infrastructure within a rural wooded environment.”

Two National Register criteria were highlighted in the 48-page application for designation:

·         Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history.

·         Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction.

The Winsted Water Works was listed in the Connecticut State Register of Historic Places on March 5, 1997.  The application to the National Register was filed in February 2020.

The National Register is composed of more than 93,500 listings, including all historic areas in the National Park System; over 2,500 National Historic Landmarks; and properties across the country that are significant to the nation, to a state or to a community.