Welcome to the Lost Villages at West Boylston. Today we will be touring the town that was lost beneath the reservoir that resulted from the construction of Wachusett Dam which was created to supply water to the Boston metropolitan area.
There were three villages (so called) in West Boylston in those days.
Upper Village, located the furthest upstream, included the Oakdale area and its mills.
Central Village was the area around the 1891 Baptist Church. It was institutional in nature (churches, schools etc.) and is dry land today.
Lower Village was the location of the West Boylston Station, directly below the power lines, only a hundred fee offshore in fifty feet of water. Mostly a residential neighborhood, supported by its own markets and the train station, it served the Clarendon Mills area.
All that remains of the Villages is the well-known Old Church and half of Oakdale.