Welcome to the Waterworks Museum

Think back to 1880. Boston’s population had grown by more than 100,000 in the last ten years. The city was welcoming many immigrants, and many of these people lived in poor housing, with inadequate water supplies. People often became ill. The conventional belief at the time was that disease was spread by airborne vapors. The germ theory was just beginning to take hold, but people were still largely unaware of the role that contaminated water played in disease transmission.

The needs of an expanding population put enormous pressure on the city’s water resources. The water supply was frequently insufficient, and what was available was not always of good quality. The challenge: how to get clean, potable water in abundant quantities to a city that kept growing.

The answer lay in monumental engineering. Pumps were designed and built to bring Boston a steady supply of clean water, eventually growing to the system we have today. Over time, the Chestnut Hill Reservoir would become the hub of the city’s ever-expanding water system.

At the same time, financiers and philanthropists involved in national growth funneled enormous industrial wealth back into Boston. As a physical symbol of that wealth, Boston enjoyed its architectural heyday. Monumental buildings reflected civic pride and cultural advancement. It was no accident that Boston was known as the Athens of America. Even buildings that housed public utilities reflected the grandeur of the time. Architects borrowed details from cathedrals and palaces, celebrating the new technologies and the public benefit they embodied.

So as you walk through the pumping station, take note of how all these strands--public health, social history, engineering, and architecture--come together to tell a very big story.