Although the site of the Old City Water Works on east Gaines and south Gadsden streets has been the site of Tallahassee’s water supply system since 1890, the current building dates to the 1910s. The construction is of industrial vernacular architecture.
A letter dated April 10, 1917 from C.F. Wagner, a mechanical engineer, to Southeastern Underwriters Association described the exterior and interior of the structure: “At the Waterworks station proper there is a brick building with a tin roof consisting of one room, housing the pumping equipment and another room housing the boiler plant. In the pump room are two deep wells, one pumped by a double acting deep well pump … and driven by electric power. The second well is pumped by an air compressor …. The air compressor is motor driven. As a stand-by unit, there is a steam engine connected up and ready to be belted to a deep well pump in case of shut down of electric current. In this same building are two … pressure motor driven centrifugal pumps…. The water is pumped from these two wells into a concrete reservoir adjacent to the plant, the reservoir holding 400,000 gallons. Water is pumped from the reservoir over their distribution system….”[1]
[1] C.F. Wagner to Southeastern Underwriters Association, April 10, 1917, in Leseman, History of the Tallahassee, Florida Public Water System, 620-621. It is unclear from the letter who exactly Mr. C.F. Wagner was and for whom he worked. He begins his letter stating: “We have letter from Mr. D.R. Swing Supt. Of Public Works at Tallahassee, Fla., asking us to give you some information relative to their waterworks system.” Unfortunately this is a copy of the letter and it does not have a letterhead that might provide more clues as to its origins.
A letter dated April 10, 1917 from C.F. Wagner, a mechanical engineer, to Southeastern Underwriters Association described the exterior and interior of the structure: “At the Waterworks station proper there is a brick building with a tin roof consisting of one room, housing the pumping equipment and another room housing the boiler plant. In the pump room are two deep wells, one pumped by a double acting deep well pump … and driven by electric power. The second well is pumped by an air compressor …. The air compressor is motor driven. As a stand-by unit, there is a steam engine connected up and ready to be belted to a deep well pump in case of shut down of electric current. In this same building are two … pressure motor driven centrifugal pumps…. The water is pumped from these two wells into a concrete reservoir adjacent to the plant, the reservoir holding 400,000 gallons. Water is pumped from the reservoir over their distribution system….”[1]
[1] C.F. Wagner to Southeastern Underwriters Association, April 10, 1917, in Leseman, History of the Tallahassee, Florida Public Water System, 620-621. It is unclear from the letter who exactly Mr. C.F. Wagner was and for whom he worked. He begins his letter stating: “We have letter from Mr. D.R. Swing Supt. Of Public Works at Tallahassee, Fla., asking us to give you some information relative to their waterworks system.” Unfortunately this is a copy of the letter and it does not have a letterhead that might provide more clues as to its origins.
