Scituate: Where The Road Meets Water
Here's an interesting look at a road map of Scituate, Rhode Island from 1919. The Scituate Reservoir didn't start holding water until 1925, but the area is clearly marked on this map. This area was once home to the villages of Ashland, Kent, South Scituate, Richmond, and the western part of North Scituate, as evidenced by the surrounding roads that run directly into the reservoir’s path. 375 homes, 233 barns, seven schools, six mills and the Providence & Danielson Railroad were destroyed in order to make way for Providence's water supply. Families fought long legal battles for their homesteads, many of which had been in their possession for generations. Many of these homes were taken apart, moved to other locations and are still standing today. Anything left behind was destroyed or utilized as resources for the reservoir itself. For example, the roadway on top of the Gainer Memorial Dam, which keeps this land flooded today, is lined with long, square stones that once served as front steps for homes in these villages.
It must have been something to drive through Saundersville in the 1920s and to discover the abrupt end of a road at the shore of this massive water supply. These days, the land surrounding the reservoir is owned by the Providence Water Supply Board, making the reservoir's shores inaccessible. Next time you are driving through North Scituate, or down Route 12, take a look off into the woods at any given spot. You can see many house foundations and stone walls, all remnants of villages that have been lost to time, whose only residents are ghosts and memory.