The Great Barrington Fire District's major mission has been to provide water for fire protection and domestic use. For many years, it also maintained sidewalks and sewers within the district.

 

A town warrant article in July 1854 called for the creation of a district. The group held its first meeting that August, and its newly elected Board of Engineers (soon to be called the Prudential Committee) got together four days later and elected C.S. Plank as the clerk and appointed nineteen members of Hope Fire Company as enginemen. This was fast action, considering a fire company had been only half-seriously proposed in February that year. Town taxpayers were fully serious, however, in addressing the issue of fire protection.

 

Calvin C. Crane was elected first chief engineer in October 1855. On the first Prudential Committee were Ralph Taylor, S.G. Robbins and Calvin Rood. They set as priorities the establishment of a hook and ladder company and the construction of at least four reservoirs, of 100 barrels or more each, placed strategically about town. The district's first reservoir was under the engine house on Castle Street. In 1858, the District built three more reservoirs—small water holding tanks—for $300.

 

The District has considerable money troubles in its first two decades—at one point it had only 51 cents in the treasury. At times it had to tax its firemen to get sufficient money to buy hose.

 

Private interests such as the Great Barrington Water Company led the way in establishing a town water system; in 1868 it raised $20,000 in capital and built the East Mountain Reservoir and provided hydrants for Hope Fire Company.

Open water sources were at times ill-protected. "Not a hundred steps from the East Mountain reservoir," noted The Berkshire Courier in February 1900, "there has lately been dumped what is estimated to be no less than eight barrels of dead fish, spoiled meat, beef trimmings and all manner of butcher’s refuse. The smell is vile and as soon as thawing weather comes, if the stuff be not removed, the villains will be washed into the reservoir. Who is responsible for the danger to the public health in this manner is not known, but prompt steps should be taken..."

 

Turtles in the reservoir in 1920 churned up the water, giving it a bad taste and prompting a boil order. One turtle, when caught, turned out to be a twenty-five-pound snapper.

An engineer urged expansion of the East Mountain Water Supply in 1922. In a slowness sometimes typical of municipal projects, it wasn't until January 1947 that a large Hendley & Lundergren shovel rolled in to enlarge and clean the water supply.

 

Rotting fish, turtles—then in December 1947, the body of John Finley, eighty-eight, of Pine Street, was found in the reservoir after a search by divers. The man, who was in the habit of getting his water from the reservoir, had apparently fallen in and drowned.

 

The Mansfield Lake Aqueduct Company was a fancy name which Edward F. Searles gave to a water line run in 1887 from Lake Mansfield to his Kellogg Terrace property, providing water for fire protection and to spew from the center of cross pond. The fire district paid for installation of seven hydrants.

Berkshire Heights Water Company also formed during this period under the guidance of Edwin D. Brainard, who developed Berkshire Heights for housing.

 

Ultimately the Great Barrington Fire District acquired all of these water works, beginning in 1890 with Great Barrington Water Company (for which it paid $34,381) with a vote in April then Berkshire Heights (for $30,304) with a vote in June. In March 1894, it voted to buy the Lake Mansfield Aqueduct water lines for $1 plus a grant of perpetual rights to water for the Searles property.

 

Great Barrington is unusual in South County in having three water systems to draw on for fire protection within the fire district, according to retired fire chief and Prudential Committee Chairman Mort T. Cavanaugh. Orange colored hydrants on Main Street are Lake Mansfield water, blue ones are Berkshire Heights and silver ones come from East Mountain, he said.

The Berkshire Heights dam just west of the Hurlburt Road bridge burst in April 1898. It cost the district $4,000 to repair the structure. In June 1900, the selectmen were adamant the Berkshire Heights dam had washed out the town's bridge abutments, incurring a large expense. It was the third washout since the bridge had gone up. The dam was eventually rendered unnecessary; a filtering crib was installed in the river at Berkshire Heights pumping station in October 1902. It filtered water through 3 feet of sand and gravel. A fence around the Berkshire Heights reservoir, in August 1914, was in such shape that "dogs desiring to have a bath have no difficulty getting one," according to the local press.

 

The Fire District took on other enterprises over the years. In 1871, it voted to erect twenty-five kerosene and gas street lamps. In 1886, plans were made to build sidewalks and sewers and the next year the district voted to spend $2,000 to construct "main drains and common sewers." These emptied, naturally, into the Housatonic River. In 1888, the District contracted with Great Barrington Electric Light for twenty electric streetlights. The District gradually ceded some of its responsibilities to the town. In 1928, the town took over control of streetlights and the first attempt to turn sidewalks and sewers to the town was made (but failed) in 1938.