Metropolitan Waterworks Museum

Last updated
Metropolitan Waterworks Museum
High Service Pumping Station, Chestnut Hill, Sudbury Aqueduct.jpg
DirectorEric Peterson
ChairpersonKatherine Burton Jones
OwnerMetropolitan Waterworks Museum Inc.
Public transit access Reservoir Wheelchair symbol.svg or Chestnut Hill
Website waterworksmuseum.org
Metropolitan Waterworks Museum
Interactive map highlighting the location of the museum
Location2450 Beacon Street, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, US
Coordinates 42°19′54.088″N71°9′20.329″W / 42.33169111°N 71.15564694°W / 42.33169111; -71.15564694 Coordinates: 42°19′54.088″N71°9′20.329″W / 42.33169111°N 71.15564694°W / 42.33169111; -71.15564694
Architect Arthur H. Vinal
Architectural style(s) Richardsonian Romanesque
Official nameChestnut Hill High Service Pumping Station
DesignatedJanuary 18, 1990
Part of Chestnut Hill Reservoir Historic District
Reference no. 89002271

The Waterworks Museum is a museum in the Chestnut Hill Waterworks building, originally a high-service pumping station of the Boston Metropolitan Waterworks. [1] It contains well-preserved mechanical engineering devices in a Richardsonian Romanesque building. [2]

Contents

During its busiest years, the waterworks pumped as much as a hundred million gallons of water each day. [3] :125 The station was decommissioned in the 1970s, and later some of its buildings were turned into condominiums. [4] After a period of disuse, the pumping station was restored, and in 2007 the Waterworks Preservation Trust was set up to oversee its conversion into a museum. [5] In March 2011, the building reopened to the public as the Waterworks Museum. [6]

History

The pumping station's Leavitt and Worthington Engines View of Leavitt and Worthington Engines, Chestnut Hill Pumping Station.jpg
The pumping station’s Leavitt and Worthington Engines

In the 1850s, Boston began modernizing its water supply, which at the time was a combination of wells, pond water, and downhill piping from a Natick reservoir. [3]

In the 1870s, Boston city leaders decided the city needed to scale up its water filtration and pumping and began looking into options.

In 1886, this 'high service' pumping station was designed, and the next year it came online as the Chestnut Hill pumping station - only a few years after the first such station in the world, in Germany. Water was pumped from this station uphill to the Fisher Hill reservoir, where gravity would then push the water to the surrounding area. [7]

In 1894, the station put its third water pump into operation: a steam-powered water pump designed by Erasmus Darwin Leavitt. [3] The Leavitt-Riedler Pumping Engine, as it was later called, was promoted as "the most efficient pumping engine in the world" it was first unveiled, and remained in operation through 1928. In the 20th century it was declared a historic mechanical engineering landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. [8] It was fully restored by the museum and is the centerpiece of its main floor.

Trivia

Mark Wahlberg filmed part of his 1992 "You Gotta Believe" in the basement of the building. [9]

The building contains the stonework faces of its designer, Arthur H. Vinal, and his wife. [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

Los Angeles Aqueduct

The Los Angeles Aqueduct system, comprising the Los Angeles Aqueduct and the Second Los Angeles Aqueduct, is a water conveyance system, built and operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The Owens Valley aqueduct was designed and built by the city's water department, at the time named The Bureau of Los Angeles Aqueduct, under the supervision of the department's Chief Engineer William Mulholland. The system delivers water from the Owens River in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains to Los Angeles, California.

The Boston Water and Sewer Commission (BWSC) serves retail customers with water services in Boston, Massachusetts. It purchases water wholesale from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA).

Croton Aqueduct Pipeline that carried water to New York City from its reservoirs in 19th century

The Croton Aqueduct or Old Croton Aqueduct was a large and complex water distribution system constructed for New York City between 1837 and 1842. The great aqueducts, which were among the first in the United States, carried water by gravity 41 miles (66 km) from the Croton River in Westchester County to reservoirs in Manhattan. It was built because local water resources had become polluted and inadequate for the growing population of the city. Although the aqueduct was largely superseded by the New Croton Aqueduct, which was built in 1890, the Old Croton Aqueduct remained in service until 1955.

Fairmount Water Works United States historic place

The Fairmount Water Works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was Philadelphia's second municipal waterworks. Designed in 1812 by Frederick Graff and built between 1812 and 1872, it operated until 1909, winning praise for its design and becoming a popular tourist attraction. It now houses a restaurant and an interpretive center that explains the waterworks' purpose and local watershed history. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976 for its architecture and its engineering innovations. It was the nation's first water supply to use paddle wheels to move water.

Blackstone Canal United States historic place

The Blackstone Canal was a waterway linking Worcester, Massachusetts, to Providence, Rhode Island through the Blackstone Valley via a series of locks and canals during the early 19th century.

Blagdon Lake

Blagdon Lake lies in a valley at the northern edge of the Mendip Hills, close to the village of Blagdon and approximately 10 miles (16 km) south of Bristol, England. The lake was created by Bristol Water, when it dammed the River Yeo, starting construction in 1898, to designs by Charles Hawksley, and completing this in 1905. The Wrington Vale Light Railway was constructed primarily to bring building materials for the lake.

London Museum of Water & Steam

London Museum of Water & Steam is an independent museum founded in 1975 as the Kew Bridge Steam Museum. It was rebranded in early 2014 following a major investment project.

Beacon Street

Beacon Street is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts and its western suburbs Brookline and Newton. It passes through many of Boston's central and western neighborhoods, including Beacon Hill, Back Bay, Fenway–Kenmore, the Boston University campus, Brighton, and Chestnut Hill.

Cochituate Aqueduct

The Cochituate Aqueduct was an aqueduct in Massachusetts that brought water to Boston from 1848 to 1951.

Jet Lowe

John T. "Jet" Lowe is an American photographer. He is one of the photographers employed by the U.S. National Park Service on the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) projects, and was the supervisor of engineering photography for HAER until his retirement in July 2013. His book, Industrial Eye: Photographs by Jet Lowe from the Historic American Engineering Record was published in 1986 by the Preservation Press.

Leavitt-Riedler Pumping Engine

The Leavitt-Riedler Pumping Engine (1894) is a historic steam engine located in the former Chestnut Hill High Service Pumping Station, in Boston, Massachusetts. It has been declared a historic mechanical engineering landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The pumping station was decommissioned in the 1970s, and turned into the Metropolitan Waterworks Museum in 2011.

Alois Riedler Austrian engineer

Alois Riedler was a noted Austrian mechanical engineer, and, as professor in Germany, a vigorous proponent of practically-oriented engineering education.

Louisville Water Tower United States historic place

The Louisville Water Tower, located east of downtown Louisville, Kentucky near the riverfront, is the oldest ornamental water tower in the world, having been built before the more famous Chicago Water Tower. Both the actual water tower and its pumping station are a designated National Historic Landmark for their architecture. As with the Fairmount Water Works of Philadelphia, the industrial nature of its pumping station was disguised in the form of a Roman temple complex.

Chestnut Hill Reservoir Historic District United States historic place

The Chestnut Hill Reservoir Historic District is a historic district encompassing the Chestnut Hill Reservoir and the surrounding water works facilities which were historically used to provide fresh water to Boston, Massachusetts, and surrounding towns. The district is nearly coextensive with the Chestnut Hill Reservation, a state park managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR); those elements of the water works that are still required as an emergency backup are managed by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA). The reservoir is located between Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue in Boston's Chestnut Hill district, just east of the Boston College Main Campus Historic District.

Shreveport Waterworks Pumping Station United States historic place

The Shreveport Waterworks Pumping Station, also known as the McNeil Street Pump Station, is a historic water pumping station at 142 North Common Street in Shreveport, Louisiana. Now hosting the Shreveport Water Works Museum, it exhibits in situ a century's worth of water pumping equipment, and was the nation's last steam-powered waterworks facility when it was shut down in 1980.

Bethlehem Waterworks United States historic place

The Bethlehem Waterworks, also known as the Old Waterworks or 1762 Waterworks, is believed to be the oldest pump-powered public water supply in what is now the United States. The pumphouse, which includes original and replica equipment, is located in the Colonial Industrial Quarter of downtown Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, between the Monocacy Creek and Main Street. It was declared an American Civil Engineering Landmark in 1971, an American Water Landmark in 1971, and a National Historic Landmark in 1981. The building is a contributing property to the Historic Moravian Bethlehem Historic District which was designated as a National Historic Landmark District in 2012 and later named to the U.S. Tentative List in 2016 for nomination to the World Heritage List.

Georgia State Railroad Museum United States historic place

The Georgia State Railroad Museum is a museum in Savannah, Georgia located at a historic Central of Georgia Railway site. It includes parts of the Central of Georgia Railway: Savannah Shops and Terminal Facilities National Historic Landmark District. The complex is considered the most complete antebellum railroad complex in the United States. The museum, located at 655 Louisville Road, is part of a historic district included in the National Register of Historic Places.

Lowell Power Canal System and Pawtucket Gatehouse United States historic place

The Lowell Power Canal System is the largest power canal system in the United States, at 5.6 miles in length. The system's estimated output is 10,000 horsepower, operating six major canals on two levels, controlled by numerous gates. The system was begun in the 1790s, beginning its life as a transportation canal called the Pawtucket Canal, which was constructed to get logs from New Hampshire down the Merrimack River to shipbuilding centers at Newburyport, Massachusetts, bypassing the 30-plus-foot drop of the Pawtucket Falls.

Fisher Hill Reservoir United States historic place

The Fisher Hill Reservoir and Gatehouse are historic elements of the public water supply for the Greater Boston area.

Charles Hermany (1830–1908) was an engineer and architect. He assisted Theodore Scowden in designing the Louisville Water Works buildings. He designed the Crescent Hill Water Plant. Hermany was the chief engineer and superintendent of the Louisville Water Company for more than 25 years and designed water systems for Bowling Green, Kentucky and Frankfort, Kentucky. His map of a park system for the Salmagundi Club is said to have inspired Frederick Law Olmsted's work.

References

  1. Burkett, Meisha Hunter (18 October 2019). "Silent and Unseen: Stewardship of Water Infrastructural Heritage". Adaptive Strategies for Water Heritage: 20–39. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-00268-8_2 . ISBN   978-3-030-00267-1. The former Metropolitan Waterworks’ high-service pumping station in Boston (originated by Arthur Vinal, 1885–1887 and expanded by Edmund Wheelwright, 1897–98) was recently opened as the Waterworks Museum.
  2. Kempe, Marcis (June 2015). "The Metropolitan Waterworks Museum: Boston's Story of Water Works Villains, Heroes, and Machinery". American Water Works Association. 107 (6): 60–65.
  3. 1 2 3 Olia, Maria (2019-05-01). No Access Boston: Beantown's Hidden Treasures, Haunts, and Forgotten Places. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN   9781493035946.
  4. Beaulieu, Rebekah (2017). Financial Fundamentals for Historic House Museums. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 11 & 13. ISBN   9781538100325.
  5. Angelo, Dana (2007). "Waterworks Museum Project Proposal" (PDF).
  6. Rosenthal, Beryl (March 2013). "Metropolitan Waterworks Museum and Chestnut Hill Reservoir—Boston, Massachusetts". Journal of the New England Water Works Association. 127 (1): 66.
  7. De Witt, Dennis (2018). "The Metropolitan Waterworks Museum at Chestnut Hill pumping station, Boston, USA". Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Engineering History and Heritage. 172 (3): 110–124. doi:10.1680/jenhh.18.00019. ISSN   1757-9430.
  8. "Leavitt-Riedler Pumping Engine". www.asme.org. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
  9. "Waterworks Museum, 2450 Beacon St, Boston, MA (2019)". www.gluseum.com. Retrieved 2019-11-09.
  10. Moskow, Shirley (February 23, 2017). "Let your appreciation flow at the Waterworks Museum". Boston Globe.

Further reading