Water Treatment Plant

This water treatment complex was built for a single, basic task–to supply a city its water needs. In 1939, federal public works funding and bonds were issued to get the $700,000 needed to build the new plant. Construction began later that year, and the plant was completed in 1940. While strictly utilitarian in concept, the treatment plant, as built, is perhaps the foremost Art Deco style building around, displaying a surprising level of architectural detail. The brick building includes a full basement, and parts of the structure are four stories high. The two-story entrance lobby features a mezzanine circling the upper level and soaring stairways rising up both sides. The stairs have ornamental wrought and cast-iron railings and oak handrails, and the lobby ceiling is adorned with ornamented plaster beams. The original light fixtures remain, as does the original red quarry floor tile. The operations floors, located in a thirteen-bay, two-and-a-half story wing, flank an extended arcade of molded plaster arches, with pilasters marking the bays. Above both sides of the arcade are square clerestory windows.

At construction, the facility was considered a major engineering feat, since it was built on the same site as the city’s existing water plant. The earlier plant dated from the late 1800s, pumping water from an adjacent creek to a stone-based water tower near the center of town. The new Art Deco plant was built while the old one continued to operate–so the water supply remained uninterrupted. With four electric pumps and a gas-powered one in reserve, the new water treatment plant could put out up to 10 million gallons of treated water per day and was built to allow expansion to double that amount. However, after World War II, a steady population growth pushed local needs beyond capacity.

By the 1960s, a larger treatment plant was built next to a nearby river. This building remained in use until 1987, working in tandem with the newer plant. After closing, the city continued to use the storage tanks for backup treated water storage. In the 1990s, the building was sold to a development firm who planned to rehabilitate and manage the property. The water treatment plant was added to the National Register of Historic Places that same year. The building changed ownership in 2006, and now, more than a decade later, the site remains in pre-development.

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