Wedding Venue Spotlight: Metropolitan Waterworks Museum

Photograph by Grazier Photography

With all the feels people get during weddings, you expect waterworks. But there’s a place to let it all flow quite literally: host your celebration at the Metropolitan Waterworks Museum.

A majestic Richardsonian-style building boasting rock-faced granite and elegantly carved sandstone trim, this is the site of the original Chestnut Hill Reservoir. But wash away visions of a dirty old pumping station, because the space is quite the opposite. This is a unique industrial location to celebrate your future while you’re surrounded by the past.

A testament to Boston’s “Golden Age” of public architecture, this famous, late-19th century building is steeped in the history that led to the development of a clean and plentiful water supply for the growing city’s entrance into the 20th century. Today you can sip champagne among its great machines.

Photograph by Photography by KLC

When you rent the space, you’ll have the entire museum for your wedding, including the Great Engines Hall (the larger of the two rooms) and Overlook Gallery, for a total capacity of 304 guests. The Great Engines Hall is rich with mahogany-toned pine ceilings and huge antique windows that open to views across the Chestnut Hill Reservoir.

Add a few guests to your list, namely Allis, Worthington, and Leavitt, three magnificent, steam-driven pumping engines that stand over three stories high. As your guests spill into the spaces between these giants, dancing and celebrating, they’ll be captivated by the massive, steam-driven engines that once powered Metropolitan Boston’s public water supply.

Suddenly waterworks at your wedding aren’t just expected, they’re welcomed.

Photo by JP Langlands Photography

The Metropolitan Waterworks Museum is located at 2450 Beacon Street in Chestnut Hill.

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