Board of Water Supply. Silver Lake Reservoir. View showing east side of south basin looking toward middle dike. Staten Island’s Silver Lake Reservoir was the original end-of-the-line for Catskill water traveling 120 miles from Ashokan Reservoir. In the 1890s, Staten Island residents pressed for a public park in their borough, and in 1897 a bill passed to purchase land and prepare plans for Silver Lake Park. The park was established about five years later, and within another few years the Board of Water Supply decided to transform the lake into a reservoir and add over 100 acres to the park. Construction began in 1913 and, as shown in this photo, by fall 1917 the reservoir was filled with Catskill water, final landscaping was underway, and this man was checking the future location of a seven-foot-tall fence (the little suitcase is where one fence post would be placed). From 1967-71, underground storage tanks were built to hold Staten Island’s drinking water, and the lake became accessible to the public again. Today the park offers many recreational activities, and the lake still receives water from Ashokan! October 17, 1917.