Hamilton Waterworks

The Hamilton Waterworks, also known as the Hamilton Waterworks Pumping Station,[1] is a National Historic Site of Canada located in Hamilton, Ontario. It is an industrial water works structure built in the Victorian style, and a rare example of such a structure in Canada to be "architecturally and functionally largely intact".[2] It is currently used to house the Museum of Steam and Technology.[1]

Hamilton Waterworks
General information
Architectural styleVictorian
Town or cityHamilton, Ontario
CountryCanada
Coordinates43°15′22.45″N 79°46′14.51″W
Opened1859
Design and construction
Main contractorGeorge Worthington
Official nameHamilton Waterworks National Historic Site of Canada
Designated17 November 1977

Its construction began in 1856, with the work contracted to local stonemason George Worthington,[1] and was completed by 1859.[2] It was opened on 18 September 1860 by Edward VII, at the time the Prince of Wales, during a two-month royal tour to Canada.[3] It was formally designated a heritage site on 17 November 1977, and listed as a National Historic Site of Canada on 12 June 2007.[2]

Background

In 1833, Hamilton's water system consisted of five wells.[4] A December 1853 report to city standing committee on fire and water, prepared by William Hodgins, proposed a public water system using Ancaster Creek as a source to avoid using pumps or sourcing water from the potentially contaminated Burlington Bay.[4] The committee dismissed the proposal, and in September 1854 announced a public competition to design a public water system suitable for 40,000 inhabitants, about four times the population of the city.[4] A prize of £100 was offered.[4] This was prompted by a cholera epidemic in the city,[5] which killed 552 people in the summer of 1854.[6]

Thomas Keefer was hired to review the submissions, and on 23 December 1854 announced that American engineer Samuel McElroy was the winning candidate.[7] His design included a pumping station at Burlington Heights, and a reservoir near the intersection of York Street and Dundurn Street.[7] Council opted not to build this station, partly encouraged by Keefer whose reports recorded "peculiar" characteristics of the water from Burlington Bay.[7] In January 1857, Hamilton City Council chose Keefer to be chief engineer to build a public water system drawing water from Lake Ontario.[8]

A fountain was installed at Gore Park to remind the city's residents of the pure water that had become available to them.[8]

Description

The complex is located adjacent to Globe Park, with Queen Elizabeth Way to the east and Woodward Avenue to the west. There are several components to the site. The pump house used steam pressure to pump water 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from Lake Ontario to a reservoir above the Niagara Escarpment,[9][10] the boiler house generated the steam, the chimney exhausted the smoke, and the woodshed stored the fuel, initially wood and later coal.[11] The water was distributed to the city's buildings through pipes by gravity.[9]

The interior of the Italianate pump house building[2] retains its original machinery, floors, and balustrades.[12] Two Woolf Compound Engines were originally installed, each one a condensing rotative beam engine producing 100 hp[13] built in Dundas.[14] A massive stone structure was built around each 90-ton, 14-metre (46 ft) engine for support.[14][10] One of these steam engines still operates, now powered by an electric motor.[12]

The 150-foot (46 m) chimney is built of brick atop a large stone base consisting of two types of stone.[15] Both the yellow-brown bioturbated Eramosa dolomite and the grey Whirlpool cross-bedding and laminated sandstone were quarried at Stoney Creek.[15]

National Historic Site of Canada

On 17 November 1977, the Hamilton Waterworks was officially recognized as a National Historic Site of Canada.[2] In addition to the original pumping station, the site also includes the boilerhouse, chimney, and shed, all of which were built in 1859, a second shed built by Worthington in 1910 with a steam pump, a pumphouse built in 1913, a carpenter shed built in 1915, and valves and valve chambers installed throughout the 1900s.[2]

Legacy

The building's exterior has been featured in the television show Murdoch Mysteries as the setting for the Toronto morgue.[14]

Notes
  1. Seymour 1991.
  2. Canadian Register of Historic Places.
  3. The Illustrated London News, 1860.
  4. Osbaldeston 2016, p. 57.
  5. Rubignoni 2011, p. 131.
  6. Osbaldeston 2016, p. 58.
  7. Osbaldeston 2016, p. 59.
  8. Osbaldeston 2016, p. 60.
  9. Rubignoni 2011, p. 132.
  10. Brown 2010, p. 50.
  11. Goddard 2016b.
  12. Goddard 2016, Preface.
  13. Bloomfield & Bloomfield 1989, p. 19.
  14. Middleton et al. 2009, p. 34.
  15. Middleton et al. 2009, p. 33.

References
  • Bloomfield, Gerald; Bloomfield, Elizabeth (1989). "Waterwheels and steam engines in Ontario: Industrial power reported in the 1871 manuscript census". Scientia Canadensis: Canadian Journal of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. 13 (1): 3–38. doi:10.7202/800279ar.
  • Brown, Ron (2010). From Queenston to Kingston: The Hidden Heritage of Lake Ontario's Shoreline. Dundurn Press. ISBN 9781554887163.
  • Goddard, John (2016). Erland Lee Museum: Inside Hamilton's Museums. Dundurn Press. ISBN 978145973355-8.
  • Goddard, John (2016b). Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology: Inside Hamilton's Museums. Dundurn Press. ISBN 9781459737341.
  • Kallmann, Helmut (March 1995). "Encyclopedia of Music in Canada". The Canadian Historical Review. Project MUSE. 76 (1): 115–120.
  • Middleton, Gerard V.; Eyles, Nick; Chapple, Nina; Watson, Robert (23 May 2009). "Niagara rocks, building stone, history, and wine" (PDF). American Geophysical Union and Geological Association of Canada. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  • Osbaldeston, Mark (2016). Unbuilt Hamilton: The City That Might Have Been. DundurnPress. ISBN 978-1-4597-3299-5.
  • Rubignoni, Ema (2011). "Flushing away the flu: Hygienic systems of though in Hamilton". In Herring, D. Ann; Carraher, Sally (eds.). Miasma To Microscopes: The Russian Influenza in Hamilton (PDF). McMaster University. ISBN 9780978241735.
  • Seymour, Alan (June 1991). "A flawed masterpiece, or the price of pressure". Bulletin. Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada. 16 (2). ISSN 0228-0744. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  • "Hamilton Waterworks National Historic Site of Canada". Canadian Register of Historic Places, Parks Canada. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  • "Visit of the Prince of Wales to America — his Royal Highness at Hamilton, Canada West". The Illustrated London News. 17 November 1860. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
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