The San Antonio Conservation Society today donatd $300,000 to refurbish the 1878 Pump House in Brackenridge Park, the oldest industrial structure in San Antonio still standing, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Conservation Society President Susan Beavin says the Pump House was the first structure built in an attempt to distribute fresh water to San Antonio homes.
Its construction followed the cholera epidemic of 1866, the same event that brought the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word to San Antonio to start Santa Rosa Infirmary, which became Santa Rosa Hospital. That event, and advances in science, convinced San Antonians that they could not continue to drink water directly out of the San Antonio River.
"The building itself is significant as the oldest intact industrial building in San Antonio," Beavin said. "There is also its native cut stone architecture, similar to many of the homes in the King William area."
The Pump House turned out to be a failure, but he sold it to George Brackenridge in 1883, and it became a foundation of Brackenridge's status as the creator of the city's first water system, which was eventually sold to the city in 1925.
The Pump House is on the National Register of Historic Places for its industrial history, as well as its design.The gift by the Conservation Society is in honor of the city's Tricentennial celebration.
WOAI PHOTO