Vine Brook - General History

General History

Before the first white settlers came around the 1630s, the Indians had formed no permanent settlement near Vine Brook in Lexington, as the water supply was not great enough for an entire tribe. However, towards the Shawsheen River there were settlements, as that was certainly a greater body of water. (While Vine Brook was small in those days, though, it did have fish.)

When the first settlement was made at Lexington circa 1642, it was near Vine Brook.

As can be seen in the next section, there was a great use of the Brook for mills, from the 17th to 19th Centuries.

In the early 20th Century, however, the practical use of the Brook switched to irrigation for neighboring farms, as Lexington was still very much a farming community up to around the 1950s. In the 1930s, as part of a WPA project, the Brook was widened and deepened from its original shallow, narrow bed from Hayes Lane to Emerson Road, all in Lexington. This was to better use it for irrigation purposes. (Today, much of the brook bed is reverting back to its natural size, gradually filling back in with silt.) In addition, it was culverted from Hayes Lane back upstream to Vine Brook Road in Lexington.

Today, a great deal of the Brook is on town-owned conservation land parks. Though many sections of the Brook have had their appearance altered over the years, some areas still remain relatively as they were in the Colonial days and before.