Memphis' pre-artesian Water Works & Reservoir, Memphis, Tenn. - c. 1880s
view larger: www.flickr.com/photos/51992558@N00/5634879266/sizes/o
Stereoview photos by Bingham & Hilliard studio, 243 Main Street, Memphis, Tenn. (in business circa early 1880s - 1900) with "Water Works & Reservoir" written on reverse.
I know nothing about old water works in Memphis but, as far as I can tell from a small amount of google books research, this pumping station and its reservoir was just north of Memphis by the Wolf River and was first built in 1872-73 by the private Memphis Water Company. It would take water from the Wolf River into its reservoirs and then pump it out to customers. I don't know if the water was filtered through grates or cleaned in any specific way. Maybe just letting the particles settle out in the relative stillness of the reservoirs was the extent of the cleaning. The Memphis Water Co. went bankrupt in 1879 after the yellow fever epidemic and was purchased in 1880 by a local businessman. Memphians wanted and worried about a better water supply and better sanitation in general through the 1880s. A large artesian aquifer under Memphis was discovered in 1887. A competing water company, the Artesian Water Company, was formed and began digging artesian wells and building a water plant on Auction Ave. at N. 5th Street. In 1888, the two water companies merged. The water company last used water from the Wolf River in June of 1890. With the new station on Auction Ave. pumping clean artesian well water, the old Wolf River station and reservoirs were no longer needed. In 1903, the City of Memphis bought the private Artesian Water Company to form the Memphis Artesian Water Department, the first city-owned utility and forerunner to Memphis Light, Gas & Water.
There's a lot more to the story, plenty of which you can read in this book, partly here: books.google.com/books?id=WywV6C0n0QQC&lpg=PA120&... and fully if you get the actual book: Crisis and Commission Government in Memphis: Elite Rule in a Gilded Age City by Lynette Boney Wrenn
Print section on Memphis' Waterworks is from this 1895 Almanac of important events of 1894: books.google.com/books?id=ar0_AAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA776&...
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For LOTS of great info on and beautiful pictures of Memphis' interesting pumping stations, check out Memphis Water Works Pumping Stations by James K. Ingram!
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Memphis' pre-artesian Water Works & Reservoir, Memphis, Tenn. - c. 1880s
view larger: www.flickr.com/photos/51992558@N00/5634879266/sizes/o
Stereoview photos by Bingham & Hilliard studio, 243 Main Street, Memphis, Tenn. (in business circa early 1880s - 1900) with "Water Works & Reservoir" written on reverse.
I know nothing about old water works in Memphis but, as far as I can tell from a small amount of google books research, this pumping station and its reservoir was just north of Memphis by the Wolf River and was first built in 1872-73 by the private Memphis Water Company. It would take water from the Wolf River into its reservoirs and then pump it out to customers. I don't know if the water was filtered through grates or cleaned in any specific way. Maybe just letting the particles settle out in the relative stillness of the reservoirs was the extent of the cleaning. The Memphis Water Co. went bankrupt in 1879 after the yellow fever epidemic and was purchased in 1880 by a local businessman. Memphians wanted and worried about a better water supply and better sanitation in general through the 1880s. A large artesian aquifer under Memphis was discovered in 1887. A competing water company, the Artesian Water Company, was formed and began digging artesian wells and building a water plant on Auction Ave. at N. 5th Street. In 1888, the two water companies merged. The water company last used water from the Wolf River in June of 1890. With the new station on Auction Ave. pumping clean artesian well water, the old Wolf River station and reservoirs were no longer needed. In 1903, the City of Memphis bought the private Artesian Water Company to form the Memphis Artesian Water Department, the first city-owned utility and forerunner to Memphis Light, Gas & Water.
There's a lot more to the story, plenty of which you can read in this book, partly here: books.google.com/books?id=WywV6C0n0QQC&lpg=PA120&... and fully if you get the actual book: Crisis and Commission Government in Memphis: Elite Rule in a Gilded Age City by Lynette Boney Wrenn
Print section on Memphis' Waterworks is from this 1895 Almanac of important events of 1894: books.google.com/books?id=ar0_AAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA776&...
--------
For LOTS of great info on and beautiful pictures of Memphis' interesting pumping stations, check out Memphis Water Works Pumping Stations by James K. Ingram!
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