Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 11/3/2021
HUNTINGTON — Although Chad Donovan-Hall has spent the last three years studying the history of Knightville and Indian Hollow, the two villages that were flooded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in order to build the Knightville Dam in 1940, his research is based on the 20 years previously put in by his mother Pamela Donovan-Hall, a former Huntington town clerk and local historian.
Donovan-Hall will be sharing his research and that of his mother in a special free presentation, “The Forgotten Valley Remembered: Life Before the Knightville Dam,” at 1 p.m. on Nov. 14 in Stanton Hall on 24 Russell Rd., Huntington. He said his mother used to give talks about the history of the area.
“This is pretty much the same presentation she used to do in the 1990s — I found her own script and a slideshow showing the main route from Knightville to Chesterfield, which hasn’t been seen in 30 years,” he said. When the dam was built, the Army Corps built Route 112 and the bridge over the river as the new route north.
The Army Corps of Engineers formally celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Knightville Dam in 2016. The dam, which is on the eastern branch of the Westfield River, began construction in 1939 and was completed in 1941 at a cost of $3.3 million. The 1,200-foot-long, 150-foot high dam can impound a 49,000-acre reservoir, equivalent to 15.8 billion gallons of water.
According to a spokesperson at the anniversary in 2016, the Knightville Dam has prevented flood damages downstream of $338 million, providing protection in conjunction with the Littleville Dam to communities in Huntington, Russell, Westfield and West Springfield that are along the Westfield River. Farther downstream, the dams help to reduce flood damages along the Connecticut River.
Building the dams meant destroying communities in Huntington, however. Donovan-Hall said even cemetery graves were moved when the government took the 2,400 acres and demolished 33 homes. Only two homes in the area were saved, including his own on Knightville Road, which was moved a quarter-mile from its original location. The other house that remains from the original village of Knightville sits just beyond the ranger station at the top of the dam. That one was saved by the owner, who had already lost two homes in the floodplain and fought to save this one by suing the government. To this day the house remains on private land just outside of the reservoir area’s boundaries.
The 75 photos in the slideshow bring back to life the houses, farms, families and lifestyles from the late 1800s to the building of the dam.
“There’s a story for everyone. It’s a fascinating history for such a small area,” Donovan-Hall said, adding that there are also some photographs from another member of the Historical Society that were not in the original presentation.
Donovan-Hall said his mother always wanted to write a book on her research.
“She was in the process. Someday, I would like to finish that in her memory,” he said, adding that he likes going around and comparing the old photos to the present day.
Attendees are invited to bring copies of family photos from the area to add to the archives and introduce their ancestors who lived there. Although the presentation is free, donations to the Huntington Historical Society will be accepted.