Rox 250: The Cochituate Stand Pipe Open Doors

Please join the Roxbury Historical Society and the Boston Parks Department as we open the Cochituate Standpipe to he community!

Take the journey to the top and enjoy views of Roxbury and environs rarely seen.

At 3:00 PM there will be a brief talk about the former fort and Major Henry Knox's role in the Revolutionary War.

Tours of the standpipe are free and first-come, first-served. This event is free and open to the public. RSVP requested but not required.

For questions, please contact roxburyhistory@gmail.com

A bit about the Cochituate Standpipe

The structure overlooks Roxbury from the top of the historic, Frederick Law Olmstead-designed Highland Park at the former location of a dirt fort key strategically to the American Revolution (and Boston’s newest Landmark District). Its construction was a bartering tool used to entice Roxbury residents to vote for annexation into Boston, which they did in 1868.

Originally designed in 1869 by Nathaniel Bradlee and called the Cochituate Standpipe, the Gothic Revival-style tower stored water from Lake Cochituate in Natick for local residents of Roxbury. The architect was himself a neighborhood resident–he lived in the Alvah Kittredge House. His firm designed numerous homes in Back Bay, some buildings of the Baker’s Chocolate complex in Dorchester, and the Conway railroad station in New Hampshire.

Changing technology made the gravity-fed tower obsolete in just 10 years. It then sat deteriorating for several decades until 1895 when the firm Olmsted, Olmsted, and Eliot made improvements to the property, including the addition of an exterior viewing balcony (since removed).