The Columbia Point Pumping Station buildings are the visible symbol for one of Boston’s great technological innovations in the field of public utilities — the system of interconnecting sewers that has been studied by many other cities in the US and beyond. The buildings were acquired by UMassBoston because the parcel allowed for the university’s development plans on the land associated with them. At that time UMass gave a promise to properly care for the buildings.
[illustration – 18676 pumpig station 5-12-2018]
The Boston Main Drainage system evolved into the Metropolitan Sewer District encompassing The Boston Main Draining System, North Metropolitan Sewer District, the Charles River Valley Sewer System and the South Metropolitan Sewer District. From the date of its construction in 1883 for over a century (until the 1980s), the Columbia Point Pumping Station remained the most visible symbol of an underground system of international renown.
[illustration – 18677 Pumping station by itself]
By 1895 the Metropolitan Sewerage District encompassed 23 municipalities with an area of about 161 square miles, including Arlington, Belmont, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Dedham, Everett, Lexington, Malden, Medford, Melrose, Milton, Newton, Quincy, Somerville, Stoneham, Wakefield, Waltham, Watertown, Winchester, Winthrop, Woburn.
In 1868 the report of the Commissioners to consider the annexation of Dorchester to the City of Boston stated that one of the objectives of annexation was to construct a tunnel and sewer from Stony Brook to discharge into Dorchester Bay. Dorchester was annexed Jan. 1, 1870.
In 1875, the City of Boston created a commission of civil engineers, to report on the state of the sewage system in the city. The Commission’s report showed the immediate need for a new sanitation system and proposed a plan for the construction of the Main Drainage System, with consolidated drains leading south of the city to the Calf Pasture at Dorchester. The new system was completed in 1884 and included the Calf Pasture Pumping Station Complex, and the Moon Island treatment facility.
Designed on the principle of gravity, the system allowed waste to travel from downtown Boston neighborhoods on higher ground, to Dorchester’s Calf Pasture on a lower elevation. The Calf Pasture station had massive pumps designed by Erasmus D. Leavitt that lifted the sewage thirty-five feet to again enable its downward journey through a tunnel leading away from the heavily populated city, past the oscillating tides, and towards Moon Island.
The Leavitt Pumps at Calf Pasture were the world’s largest at the time. Their fly wheels each weighed 72.5 tons and measured 50 feet in diameter. The pumps ran continuously throughout the day. Each engine could pump up to 25 million gallons of sewage per day. By the mid-1880s, the two engines pumped an average of just under 37 million gallons each day.
[illustration – 10068 Leavitt Pumping Engines from Main Drainage Works]
His projects included numerous large water or sewage pumping engines for US cities. An example of his work is the 1894 Leavitt-Riedler Pumping Engine at the Chestnut Hill Pumping Station on display in the Metropolitan Waterworks Museum.
George Albert Clough was famous during his lifetime, and his significance was noted state-wide. He was Boston’s first City Architect, and he designed a great many buildings during his ten-year tenure. His fame earned him a full page in the book Massachusetts of Today. A Memorial of the State Historical and Biographical Issued for the World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago. The text mentioned some of his works: Lyman School for boys, Durfee Memorial Bulding at Fall River, school building at Bridge Academy, Dresden, Maine as well as similar buildings all over New England as well as in New York and Pennsylvania. The text also mentioned his recent work ranging from the Fogg Memorial in South Berwick, Maine, to Dana Hall at Wellesley. His obituary printed in the Boston Evening Transcript, Dec. 31, 1910 says: Prominent among the buildings which Mr. Clough designed is … the Westboro Insane Hospital, the Marcella-Street Home, the Lyman School for Boys, the Durfee Memorial Building in Fall River, the Bridge Academy at Dresden, and similar buildings through New England, as well as others in Pennsylvania and New York.. Mr. Cloughs plans for the Suffolk County Court House were accepted after an extended competition among the architects of the country.
Resources:
Biographical History of Massachusetts … Samuel Atkins Eliot, Editor-in-Chief. Volume III. (Boston, 1911)
“Boston’s First Architect. George A. Clough of Brookline Designed Notably Important Public Buildings.” Boston Evening Transcript, December 31, 1910.
Eliot C. Clarke. Main Drainage Works of the city of Boston (Massachusetts, U.S.A.). (Boston, 1885).
Main Drainage Works of Boston and Its Metropolitan Sewerage District. (Boston, 1899)
Map Showing Metropolitan Sewerage District: January 1, 1921. At the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, Boston Public Library.
https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:js956j60j
Massachusetts of Today. A Memorial of the State Historical and Biographical Issued for the World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago. By Daniel P. Toomey. (Boston, 1892), 230.
National Register of Historic Places Criteria Statement Form for Calf Pasture Pumping Station, 435 Mt. Vernon Street, Dorchester. July 30, 1028. Prepared by Kathleen von Jena, Boston Landmarks Commission.
Sewer History from Boston Water and Sewer Commission.
http://www.bwsc.org/ABOUT_BWSC/systems/sewer/Sewer_history.asp