The City of Hartford had unofficially abandoned the use of the reservoir by 1919, but it could not formally abandon that use as the property would revert to the American School for the Deaf. There were several reasons that the reservoir was finally abandoned and sold in 1919: the reservoir was obsolete, as the new Nepaug Reservoir was online; the reservoir was too small to meet the contemporary needs of the city (it was estimated it could hold only one-third of the city's daily water supply); and the plan for the Broad Street Extension would, inevitably, cut through a small portion of the reservoir's structure. Plus, the Hartford Fire Insurance Company was willing to buy the reservoir and then give back the portion needed for the Broad Street Extension without any additional cost to the city.
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