Landmark Preserved By Watershed Group

WINSTED — Members of the Highland Lake Watershed Association banded together recently to spruce up one of the town’s well-known treasures, the Cannavo Spring on Hurlbut Street, where Laurel City residents have been collecting fresh spring water for more than a century.

Association member and past president Claire Stevens said Monday that the group donated flowers, mulch and labor to beautify the site, where a water pipe delivers water from behind a concrete barrier. The spring was originally piped by the late Antonio Cannavo and was refurbished and dedicated to him by the town shortly after he died in 1959.

Cannavo’s son, Tony Cannavo, said Tuesday he could not recall when his father installed the original pipe at the spring, but remembers townspeople using the spring for fresh water after the great flood of 1955 destroyed Winsted’s municipal water system.

“People relied on that water,� he said. “They would line up at the spring to get water after the flood.�

Cannavo said he inherited the property when his father died. He built a house on the land and the spring at the side of the road is considered a family gift to the town. For years the state took responsibility for testing the quality of the water, but in recent years the water has not been tested. Many Winsted residents still say it’s the best water you can get.

“I went there as a kid with my mother, who went there when she was a child, so that made it about 1910,� Stevens said of the spring. “She would go up there with her glass jugs and get the water.� Stevens said she remembers there used to be a collection pond next to the area where the pipe sits, but the pond was mistreated by residents who would throw litter into it. The pond was eventually filled in.

Stevens said she brought a testing meter to the spring this week to check the water, which measured 50 degrees. “It’s just perfect drinking temperature,� she said. “It doesn’t make your teeth hurt, but it’s just cold enough. It’s so refreshing.�

Members of the Highland Lake Watershed Association donated chrysanthemums and bushes for the Cannavo Spring project and took care of all the cleanup and planting at the site. “There is a also a new catch basin which was part of the town’s rebuilding project,� Stevens said, noting that the old catch basin and surrounding asphalt had been caving into the road. “The new one is beautiful,� she said.

Water from the spring travels underground along the east side of Hurlbut Sreet toward the center of town, eventually making its way into the Mad River.