Board of Water Supply. Mount Prospect Reservoir; Mount Prospect Water Tower. Before Catskill water reached Brooklyn in 1916, the borough received its water from areas of Long Island. The Mount Prospect Reservoir was completed in 1858 to serve the highest parts of Brooklyn, and a tower designed by Thayer and Wallace was built in 1893 to improve water pressure. Once the Catskill system was in place, the reservoir and water tower were still used but gradually phased out. The tower was demolished in 1930 and the reservoir was dismantled ten years later. This is now the site of the Brooklyn Public Library's Central Library. This print is dated March 1927, but the original photograph must date somewhere between 1897 and 1912. Brooklyn Museum (in background) was completed 1898, and had a portico by April 1913.