Something About the New Zebedee Waterworks

Spouting water in many pipes.

Jonathan Barnavelt says his former house was “near the waterworks (The House with a Clock in its Walls, 32).”

Waterworks is a term usually referring to the facility housing a town’s water supply. Onsite were pipes, pumps, and paraphernalia needed to cleanse the water in preparation for consumption.

Marshall historian Richard Carver told the story of Marshall’s waterworks:

In 1859 Charles P. Dribble, the first mayor of Marshall, urged the City Council to do something about the municipal water supply. In April of 1872 contracts were let out for wells to give Marshall adequate water. It was discovered that shallow artesian wells would suffice. These wells were merely iron pipes driven down from eighteen to seventy feet at which depth they reached an immense reservoir of water underlying the city. There were thirty-three wells driven and many of them are still usable about town  [1].

The city built the waterworks building and standpipe in 1888-89 (we assume what's in the picture above).  Carver noted the city demolished the old smokestack at 839 East Green in 1967 after being unused for 20 years.

The City of Marshall tells the rest of the story:

The City water department was acquired from George and Nelly Southworth on September 25, 1897. The Southworth’s bought the property in a foreclosure sale from the Marshall Waterworks Company on September 13, 1897. This purchase included a standpipe, an artesian well, property, buildings, equipment and tools located at the site of the current water treatment plant. Also included were meters, services, mains and hydrants.

Water flowed from the artesian well into a reservoir beneath the old brick house where it was pumped to the distribution system by steam operated pumps. Those pumps were later replaced by electric motor driven pumps.

As the need for water resources in the City increased, additional wells were installed, replacing the original artesian well. The existing water supply is groundwater-based. The current wells were installed between 1950 and 1964. Well No. 1 was completed in 1950, Well No. 2 was completed in 1951, Well No. 3 was completed in 1953, and Well No. 4 was completed in 1964 at the time when the current Iron and Manganese Removal Plant was being built. The Filter plant went into operation in 1965 and at that time the 200,000 gallon elevated storage tank was constructed and the old standpipe on High Street was removed. The 500,000 gallon elevated tank was added to the system in 1978 [2].

That “old standpipe” figures into our story later, so keep reading.

References

• [1] A History of Marshall, p. 202.
• [2] Water Department History; the City of Marshall.