Hop Brook Dam – Part 1

#Middlebury #ItHappenedInMiddlebury #HopBrookDam

By DR. ROBERT L. RAFFORD

Readers may have walked the trails at Hop Brook Dam or gone swimming in Hop Brook Lake, but it’s unlikely they have seen it from this perspective. The dam, built by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1968, turns 50 this year (recreation.gov photo)

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the completion of the Hop Brook Dam in Middlebury. While the area is rather serene these days, 1968 was far from a peaceful time in Middlebury.

Hop Brook, perhaps the grandest waterway in Middlebury, has posed a major challenge since at least the mid-19th century. In the 1890s, Connecticut newspapers reported plans for diverting water from Hop Brook to ease the critical need of Waterbury residents, even running pipes from Lake Quassapaug to downtown Waterbury. But, as early as April 1951, a proposal to erect a dam in Oxford by the Bridgeport Hydraulic Company was announced.

That plan met with vigorous opposition by residents of area towns, including Middlebury. The proposal would divert overflow water from Lake Quassapaug, which flows along Three Mile Brook, into Hop Brook, where it would be met by a dam. Harold W. Brown, representing Naugatuck, lamented at a hearing held in Middlebury Town Hall, that this scheme would double the water flow in Hop Brook, and that the brook “now is overflowing as a result of the recent rains.” He pointed out, “Such a plan would do no end of damage to properties bordering Hop Brook, and would create a danger…” (Naugatuck Daily News).

The issue had been studied for four years when, on Friday, Aug. 19, 1955, “the greatest flood spectacle New England has ever seen” (Waterbury Republican-American) struck the entire Naugatuck River area, especially Waterbury. At the height of the great flood, President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared Connecticut a major disaster area.

Doubtless it was that flood that brought up the flood control plan again, when, in May 1956, further study was called for by the Naugatuck Valley Flood Control Commission. The commission reported it was opposed to building the dam on Hop Brook, and also opposed building it on Fulling Mill Brook in Naugatuck, but suggested further study of Long Meadow Brook in Middlebury. Nevertheless, the federal government pushed its agenda to construct a dam on Hop Brook.

A town hearing on the proposed $2.6 million Hop Brook Dam was called for Thursday, Nov. 29, 1956, in Middlebury Town Hall. The Army Corps of Engineers called for a meeting in Waterbury on Dec. 11 at 2 p.m., when many Middleburians could not possibly attend. Middlebury First Selectman Forrest Purinton stated in a letter that the project would mean that 65 houses would have to be demolished and Route 63 (Straits Turnpike), would have to be reconstructed.

Monday, Dec. 8, 1956, saw Middleburians assembled in the Mary I. Johnson School, where 75 percent of the people who stood to be affected by the dam objected to the project. By Dec. 12, the Hartford Courant was reporting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was proposing 10 flood control dams in the Naugatuck Valley. While Torrington, Waterbury, Beacon Falls, Seymour, Ansonia and Derby went along with the proposed dams, five others expressed dissatisfaction. Middlebury, it reported, “was violently opposed to the proposed Hop Brook Dam in that town” (The Hartford Courant). With this kind of opposition, the project was bound to fail.

Bob Rafford is the Middlebury Historical Society president and Middlebury’s municipal historian. To join or contact the society, visit MiddleburyHistoricalSociety.org or call Bob at 203-206-4717.