With so much underground sewer pipe installation interrupting traffic flow this summer, we can look back to the late 19^th century when the Norfolk water system was built. Housed in this building that once stood on the site of the Berkshire Country Store, the Norfolk Water Company was formed in 1894. At that time Norfolk was in its heyday as a summer resort.  With new houses being built and hotels filled to capacity during the summer months, the town was in need of a perpetual supply of pure water. The obvious source was spring-fed Wangum Lake at the top of Canaan Mountain. With an elevation of 260 feet above the railroad station in the center of town, the lake was considered to be 50 feet higher than any house that would be built. In 1893, Frederick M. Shepard began securing the flowage rights from the lake to Norfolk, four miles below. Over the next two years, pipe was laid at the rate of a quarter of a mile a day with a work force of 140 men.  By the summer of 1896, a continuous supply of pure mountain water was available to all in town. The home office pictured here was designed by Norfolk architect Alfredo Taylor in 1906, an early cinder block building with red tile hipped roof. Sadly it was destroyed by fire in 1987.  

Text by Ann Havemeyer
Photo Courtesy of the Norfolk Historical Society