Quabbin–Swift River Valley

Enfield was a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts. The town was lost as a result of the creation of the Quabbin Reservoir.

The Quabbin Reservoir is the largest inland body of water in Massachusetts, and was built between 1930 and 1939. Along with the Wachusett Reservoir, it is the primary water supply for Boston, 65 miles (105 km) to the east, and 40 other cities and towns in Greater Boston. The Quabbin also supplies water to three towns west of the reservoir and acts as backup supply for three others. By 1989, it supplied water for 2.5 million people, about 40% of the state's population at the time. It has an aggregate capacity of 412 billion US gallons (1,560 GL) and an area of 38.6 square miles (99.9 km2).

Greenwich () was a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts. The town was lost as a result of the formation of the Quabbin Reservoir in order to supply Boston's growing water needs.

The Goodnough Dike (actually a dam) is on the southeastern end of the Quabbin Reservoir, the largest water body in Massachusetts. It impounds the waters of Beaver Brook and therefore closes that exit to the Chicopee River Watershed. The Goodnough Dike is not as large as the Winsor Dam, but it is equally important as they both trap the waters of the Quabbin Reservoir. This dam is part of the metropolitan Boston's water supply, maintained by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.

The Five College Radio Astronomical Observatory (FCRAO) was a radio astronomy observatory located on a peninsula in the Quabbin Reservoir. It was sited in the town of New Salem, Massachusetts on land that was originally part of Prescott, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1969 by the Five College Astronomy Department (University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass), Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College and Smith College). From its inception, the observatory has emphasized research, the development of technology and the training of students—both graduate and undergraduate. The initial FCRAO telescope was a customized low-frequency antenna to search for pulsars in the galaxy. The development of instrumentation within the FCRAO labs contributed to the discovery of the binary pulsar system PSR B1913+16 by Joseph Taylor and Russell Hulse, for which they received the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics. It was replaced by a 14-meter radome-enclosed millimeter-wave telescope in 1976.

Prescott was a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts. It was incorporated in 1822 from portions of Pelham and New Salem, and was partially built on Equivalent Lands. It was named in honor of Colonel William Prescott, who commanded the American forces at the Battle of Bunker Hill. It was disincorporated on April 28, 1938, as part of the creation of the Quabbin Reservoir. It was the least populous of the four unincorporated towns, with barely 300 residents by 1900. Upon dissolution, portions of the town were annexed to the adjacent towns of New Salem and Petersham. The majority of the former town (the New Salem portion) is still above water, and is known as the Prescott Peninsula. The public is not allowed on the peninsula except for an annual tour given by the Swift River Valley Historical Society, or for hikes conducted by the Society. None of the land is in Hampshire County any longer; the New Salem portion is in Franklin County; and the Petersham portion is in Worcester County. As with the nearby town of Dana, after the dissolution of incorporation, houses were moved or razed, but cellar holes remained. The Prescott First Congregational Church, located in the village of Prescott Four Corners, was moved to South Hadley and is now the home of the Joseph Allen Skinner Museum. The former site of Prescott Center was home to the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory from 1969 to 2011. Scientific work conducted on the 14-meter radio telescope will be continued on the modern 50-meter Large Millimeter Telescope in Mexico. Daniel Shays, leader of the 1787 rebellion which bears his name, was a resident of that part of Pelham which later became the southern part of Prescott. The site of his former home is still above water; but the house was gone by 1927, and in any event the site is inaccessible to the general public. The Conkey Tavern, located roughly to the west of the Shays site, was where the Shays Rebellion was largely planned. Its site is now under water. The Atkinson Tavern, once the centerpiece of the small village of Atkinson Hollow, stands today, renovated and expanded, in West Springfield, Massachusetts as the Storrowton Tavern, on the grounds owned by the Eastern States Exposition. The former Town Hall, once located just south of Atkinson Hollow, is inaccessible to the general public, and stands today off of Route 32 in Petersham. The village of North Prescott, on the border between Prescott and New Salem, remains partially open to public access. Although the site of the North Prescott Methodist Episcopal Church is vacant, the former parsonage—now a private home which is not open to the public—remains on its original site. The church building itself is today home of the Swift River Valley Historical Society in North New Salem, where it was moved in 1985. Prior to this the church stood at its site on the New Salem line until 1949, when it was initially moved to Orange as home of the former Prescott Historical Society. A few other structures remain. Prescott House, an on-campus living facility at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, is named after the former town.

The Winsor Dam and the Goodnough Dike impound the waters of the Swift River and the Ware River Diversion forming the Quabbin Reservoir, the largest water body in Massachusetts. According to the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation the Winsor Dam is one of the largest dams in the Eastern U.S. The Winsor Dam is part of the Chicopee River Watershed. The Winsor Dam was named for Frank E. Winsor, its chief engineer.

The Chicopee Valley Aqueduct carries water from the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts to the Chicopee city line. It delivers Quabbin water to Wilbraham, South Hadley fire district #1, and Chicopee. It is part of the Chicopee River Watershed.

Conkey's Tavern was built in 1758 by William Conkey in Pelham, Massachusetts. It is particularly famous as the place where Daniel Shays met with his followers and plotted his famous rebellion against the Massachusetts Government in 1786/1787. The location of the tavern is now submerged under the Quabbin Reservoir.

Carrick Island is a small island in the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts, roughly 600 feet (180 m) by 300 feet (91 m). It is part of the Town of Petersham, in Worcester County. The island lies just west of the much larger Mount Zion Island, the largest island in the reservoir.

The Ware Center Historic District encompasses the historic early center of Ware, Massachusetts. Centered at the junction of Massachusetts Route 9 with Greenwich Plains Road, it is a linear district extending about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) along Route 9 in either direction. Most of the structures in the district were built between 1760 and 1860, although there are some 20th century intrusions. The area was the center of town civic and commercial activity until the 1820s, when villages serving industry became more important. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

The Pelham Town Hall Historic District encompasses the remaining municipal portion of the center of Pelham, Massachusetts as laid out between 1738 and 1743. It includes the Old Town Hall, built in 1743, which is claimed by the town to be the oldest continuously used town hall in the United States. It also includes the 1843 Greek Revival Congregational church, and the town's first cemetery, founded in 1739. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.The land which became Pelham was acquired by the Lisburn Proprietors, Scotch-Irish emigrants, in 1738. The next year, a lot of 10 acres (4.0 ha) was laid out for a meeting house, town pound, training field, and cemetery. The meeting house (now the town hall) was built on this parcel in 1743. Initially used for both religious and civic purposes, its religious function ended after the state mandated the separation of church and state in 1833. The Greek Revival church was built next door in 1839; it now houses the local historical society. The town center is historically significant as the last organized encampment site of rebel forces led by Daniel Shays during the Shays' Rebellion.The town hall is a two-story wood-frame structure, with a gabled roof and clapboarded exterior. Its main facade is five bays wide, with a projecting central square vestibule. The church is a single-story frame structure, with its gabled roof oriented perpendicular to that of the town hall. It has corner pilasters, which rise to an entablature, and it is topped by a single-stage square belfry with octagonal spire.