What was the use for this pond?

[Ludovic]

The basin here, in Jamestown, New York. Set right next to a creek but a foot or so above it. Clearly the water at some point had been channelized (in the bottom right) to go into the (now-empty) basin. These days it's a mess of leaves, and the water bypasses it to the right of it. If you ever see it on the ground it's an artificial basin made of stones, that's around 2 feet higher than the creek it's next to and about 5 feet deep.

I think it might have been an ice-skating rink, because it's high enough off the creek that you'd need to actively pump water into it. Or perhaps another sort of entertainment-based artificial pond?

It doesn't seem to be the right size for a reservior, so I'm pretty sure it's not that, and I don't see evidence of a pipe to use it for a mill or water reservior. But does it look like those from the picture?

[Caught@Work]

Retarding basin?
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1379827

[NinetyWt]

I can't tell enough from the linked photo. Are you saying it has a wall made of stones?

[Ludovic]

Originally Posted by Caught@Work

Retarding basin?
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1379827

Hmmm, that might be it, an artificial lake that was refilled naturally during the flood season.

Ninety, I seem to recall its side were stone, but they could have been concrete. The main thing is that I couldn't find any mechanism for the water to get up to the pond in the first place.

[NinetyWt]

Caught@Work's suggestion makes sense. It just seems too small to make any dent in flooding.

I like your notion of an ice skating rink. The park there, Allen Park, seems to have an indoor rink. I wonder if this was an old outdoor one.

[NinetyWt]

Check this out, from the history of Jamestown:

The first system of fire protection consisted of a series of small storage reservoirs located in various sections of the village.

From here.

[Ludovic]

I think you might be right! It is consistent with a storage reservoir that had to be hand-pumped, then refilled manually since it is so close to the creek, although the fact it's at the bottom of a ravine is sort of weird. But let me keep the illusion of an ice skating rink

(Yeah, I had seen the ice skating rink in Allen Park before and just never connected the two, perhaps I did subconsciously.)