Historical Society Program

On The Stevenson Dam

On September 8, at 7:30 pm, in the Meeting Room of the Booth Library, 25 Main Street (Route 25) in Newtown Center, the Newtown Historical Society will look at one of the area’s venerable sights, the Stevenson Dam.

The village of Stevenson was named after Colonel Stevenson, the man who lured the railroad away from Derby and thus established Stevenson as a manufacturing center, and the dam logically followed the locale in its naming. Built in 1918, the dam served both bridging and water control needs.

New England’s streams and rivers had always mechanically powered the region into leading America’s industrialization. By the 20th Century the direct use of river power was fading as larger manufacturing scale demanded larger power sources. The rivers again came to the rescue, this time by providing electric generation capability as electric technology developed. Long before behemoth coal- and oil-fired generating plants were built, New England’s rivers once again propelled industry to the lead.

In a program presented by John Babina, Jr, the historical society will look at the construction of the Stevenson Dam, its history, arguments about its effects on the environment, and its future.

John Babina lives in Monroe. He worked in avionics systems engineering at Sikorsky Aircraft, retiring in 1999. He is now a consultant at Pitney Bowes. He was a founder of Monroe’s WMNR radio station, and himself holds a first class radio telephone license from the Federal Communications Commission. He is an active member of the Monroe Historical Society, and has given numerous talks on area history and genealogy methods to local groups.

Future Historical Society programs for the fall will include a presentation by Robert Olson as 19th Century magician Richard Potter on October 14, and a look at local postcards and postal history with Carl Kallgren on November 10.

All Newtown Historical Society programs are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served following the presentation. For further information, call the society at 426-5937.