PUMP HOUSE

Located at about the intersection of today’s Osborn Drive and Wallace Road, or perhaps a little farther south.

A structure to cover the pump and boiler near the spring had been built as part of the water system installed in 1872.¹ (See section on Water Supply in this volume.)

In 1897 a recommendation was made “that the old grinding house and engine room be fitted over for an implement store house and suitable provisions made therein for instruction in agricultural physics.”² It is thought that the structure here referred to was the 1872 pump house. At the same meeting the Board adopted a report against making repairs because “your committee after an examination of the building find it dilapidated and badly out of repair, and its convenience very poor, really unfit for an implement shed.”

In 1884 a new Pump House was erected in the same area near the spring which served as the main campus water supply until the new system was installed in 1897. This was built under contract with V. Tomlinson at the same time he was building the addition to Engineering Hall (Laboratory of Mechanics). Cost was $750 for construction and $30 for architect’s fees. A boiler house was added in 1894, built by A.H. Chaffee for $383.

In September 1904 authorization was given to install an electric motor-driven pump.

In November the building burned and request was made for funds to replace it with a fireproof structure.³