[Previous] [Main Index] [Next]

"HISTORIC WATER COMPANY SITE ON NEW JERSEY REGISTER - June 2001"

Article published in Industrial Archaeology Newsletter

This designation provides a powerful protection for the historic site which ceased operations in 1990 and was donated to Bergen County by the Hackensack Water Co. in 1993. The site has been the focus of a 6 year effort by the Water Works Conservancy, Inc.,(WWC) a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) grass-roots organization, to obtain possession of the site to preserve and restore it. SIA members have had the opportunity to tour the site twice. The five part WWC full preservation proposal calls for the site to become the first New Jersey Smithsonian Affiliate history, technology and science Museum; an Educational Center; an Environmental Center; Hackensack River Research
Center; and a Cultural Center. According to the WWC proposal, the site, located on the Hackensack River - one of the 12 most endangered rivers in America - would become a major regional resource for research and education on water use, the cutting edge issue for the 21st Century.

However, the historic site remains endangered as County Executive William ?Pat? Schuber?s has recently reversed his support of WWC?s proposal to restore the site. Executive Schuber?s new proposal calls for demolishing entirely the Pump House and most of the historic equipment; leaving ?Old Number 7,? the historic 4-story Allis Chalmers triple expansion steam engine installed in 1907, out-of-doors as a ?sculptural object? in a garden ?ruin? surrounded by remnants of the pump house walls; demolishing all but the lab section of the Filtration Plant; and creating an ?amphitheater? over the remains of the filtration plant.

Mr. Schuber?s plan has galvanized a major outcry of dismay from historical preservationists, historical organizations and citizens throughout the state and nation, including Oradell?s favorite son, USN Captain Walter M. Schirra, Jr., one of the original seven US Astronauts. A national coalition is forming to Save the Water Works and encourage County Executive Schuber to return to his original proposal of creating a 10-acre environmental park and turning the historic Hackensack Water Co. buildings over to WWC to preserve and restore. Robert M. Vogel, Curator Emeritus of Technology and Engineering of the Smithsonian Institution, has called Executive Schuber?s ?new? proposal, ?simply ludicrous.? Supporters of the WWC?s proposal for preserving the Hackensack Water Co. site include: the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Preservation New Jersey, Save America?s Treasures, Architects League of Northern New Jersey, the Bergen County School Principal?s Association and the Superintendents Association, the International Society for Industrial Archeology, the Bergen County Historic Sites Advisory Board, Bergen County Historical Society, Oradell Historic Committee, Leonia Environmental Commission, to name a few, as well as hundreds of individual citizens. A recent independent poll in Oradell showed that 67.1% of the voting population supported the WWC plan.

Richard Moe of the National Historic Trust has written the County Executive and the Bergen County Freeholders that ?the National Trust for Historic Preservation urges your support for the rehabilitation plans for the historic Hackensack Water Co. building complex and site. As one of only a few intact 19th Century water and filtration plants remaining today, preservation is strongly encouraged...The Conservancy?s proposed affiliation with the Smithsonian Museum and reuse plan as an environmental center and a Hackensack River Research Center are extremely innovative...Critical now is a working
agreement between the County and the Water Works Conservancy, Inc...The National Trust can point to many successful public-private partnerships and projects around under similar circumstances.?

Assistant Commissioner Wild stated that the Hackensack Water Company site is ?a rare example of early water treatment and distribution technology. It is apparent that this property is an important site architecturally, in its contribution to the suburban growth of the area and the technological contributions of this industrial plant.? ? Moreover,? Asst. Commissioner Wild continued, ?the site has been designated an Official Project by the Save America's Treasure program [a coalition of the National Historic Trust and the White House Millennium Council which designates historic sites which ?define America?] and has received a matching grant [$575,000] from the New
Jersey Historic Trust.?

The New Jersey Historic Trust Fund Board sent a Resolution to County Executive Schuber and the Board of Chosen Freeholders that: as the site was an important historical site, as the site was an Official Project of the Save America's Treasures, and as this site was important to the State of New Jersey as well as the nation, that the County of Bergen consider quite seriously a full preservation effort. Barbara Mitnick, the Chair of the NJ Historic Trust Fund Board, termed Schuber?s proposal ?the creation of a ruin.? Ms. Mitnick warned, ?These sites, designated by Save America's Treasures, are chosen very carefully and are heavily scrutinized. They are very important sites historically. This is not just some little local or County historical site. You don't just knock down ?an American Treasure,? without making every effort to save it." On June 8, the New Jersey Historic Commission awarded the WWC a $60,000 GOS Grant, contingent on WWC gaining possession of the site. On June 19, the Oradell Borough Council passed a second Resolution urging Bergen County to negotiate with WWC to preserve and restore the historic site.

The Hackensack Water Co. site is an intact state-of-the-art 19th Century water treatment and filtration plant with red brick, Romanesque architecture dating from 1882, containing rare and unique steam equipment that was the backbone of the Industrial Revolution. Robert M. Vogel, has described the pump house at the historic site as ?the history of the Industrial Revolution in one building from steam to electricity.? The Pump House itself was built over a period of time, beginning in 1882 and finishing in 1911, and the equipment follows a similar time line.

The purpose of a water supply system is to bring water from the watershed - the source of supply - to where you want it - the customer. The supply must be constantly available; sufficient pressure maintained regardless of height of building or hills; storms, floods and drought must not affect the supply; the quality of water must be meet standards of purity at all times; and finally, there must be control over all this so the water comes out of the faucet when it is turned on, no matter how many taps are open at the same time. This presents complex engineering problems. The techniques involve a
combination of gravity flow, pumping devices, purification processing and water distribution mains. The Pumping station pumps must be carefully maintained and controlled. The major component is the pump that forces the water to its destination. What makes this site most extraordinary is that the Hackensack Water Co. preserved much of the historical pumping equipment alongside newer equipment, creating a literal technological time line of the development of pumping equipment from 1850 on. Walking through the site, is akin to stepping back in history. The visitor is awed by the scale and complexity of the equipment still on site. The massive 4-story 1911 section of the Pump House feels like a temple to technology.

Of the in situ historic pieces of equipment in the Pump House, the most impressive is ?Old No. 7,? the 4-story Allis Chalmers Vertical Triple Expansion engine (20 MGD), the only remaining of 5 which were installed between 1901 and 1911. Not only is its size astonishing - it rises from the floor like an old Mississippi paddle wheeler , but this type of steam pump was the back-bone of the industrial revolution and it represents the carrying of the development of the multiple-expansion pumping engine to a remarkable level of performance, and was to an unusual degree the achievement of one engineer, Edwin Reynolds, and a single engineering works, the E.P. Allis Company [later Allis-Chalmers] of Milwaukee. It was this engine, in origin associated with advances in British marine engineering from the 1850?s that set the pattern for the largest class of waterworks pumping engines in the United States for a generation to come.

This type of pump, where the cylinder and plunger were in a vertical position, was based on the expansion principle utilized in marine steam engines, where vertical plungers were directly activated in succession by high pressure steam and then by lower pressures. Two fly wheels were employed to guarantee continued movement and huge air bumpers to prevent ?water hammer? should any pause occur. From the 1850?s, these direct-acting steam pumps were state of the art, and rose from obscurity to become one of the most generally useful pieces of industrial equipment, virtually indispensable in the economical handling in industry.

In the 1886 section of the Pump House, you find Pump 3, an Allis Chalmers, Corliss cross compound centrifugal, installed in 1915 and capable of 36 MGD (this is almost twice the 20 MGD of Old #7?). # 3 was used to pump raw water to the settlement basin. This pump was never converted to electricity and was last used in 1989, serving as a back-up to the end of service in 1990. It is an unusual combination because there are two horizontal pistons operating at different pressure to power a centrifugal pump. The control of the steam into the piston is governed by a Corliss valve, which makes very economical use of steam. It is ?compound? because there are two pistons and two cylinders; one of the pistons uses the steam at high pressure, then the same steam at a lower pressure ?crosses? to be used by the second piston and cylinder. Because of fuel costs and efficiency, all pumps installed after 1915 were variations of the centrifugal pump.

The first steam turbine installed for power was for Pump No. 10, a DeLaval centrifugal steam turbine, installed in 1929, with a capacity of 30 MGD. It is in the 1911 Pump House section, just north of ?Old No. 7.? There was a gradual shift to electricity to operate some pumps. In 1954, an electric substation was built west of the Pump House. But even after that date, steam was a major source of power for basic water pumping and for emergency situations.

Other in situ equipment includes:
1937 - No. 4:A DeLaval Centrifugal Pump with an Ames Uniflow Steam Engine (40 MGD) in 1958, Ideal Squirrel Cage Electric Motor replaced steam engine

1941 - No. 11: Worthington Turbine Driven Centrifugal Pump (20 MGD)
With Horizontal Duplex Piston Pumps
1941 - No. 12: Worthington Duplex Steam Turbine Driven Centrifugal (10 MGD) Converted from High Service to Low Service c. 1958

1948 - No. 1 & 2: DeLaval Geared Steam Driven Centrifugal Pumps (80 MGD)

1956 - No. 13: DeLaval Single Stage Centrifugal Pump (30 MGD)
Ideal Electric motor driven

1959 - No. 14: DeLaval Single State Centrifugal Pump (30 MGD)
Ideal Electric motor driven

1979 - No. 5: Morris Horizontal Mixed Flow Centrifugal Pumps (45 MGD) Ideal Electric Motor

1979 - No. 6: Morris Horizontal Mixed Flow Centrifugal Pumps (45 MGD) Ideal Electric Motor

When the New Milford Plant was shut down in 1990, it was termed a 120 MGD station, and had that capability. Although former Plant Manager Dan Hoffman, stated that it was usually operated at 100 MGD. The equipment remains today as in 1990, although some pieces have been removed to preserve or taken by vandals. There are numerous other smaller pieces of equipment like an extant Simplex Meter in the original location and a good example of early instrumentation used to monitor and record rate of flow. On the south wall of the 1882 section, you can see an old electrical control board, dating from the early 1900?s. Visitors have compared it to equipment in a Frankenstein movie. It was used to control the distribution of electricity to the overhead cranes and even electrical lighting before the substation was built. There is a Ball and Wood generator which supplied DC current for the overhead cranes (patent date Dec. 14, 1893). A good example for demonstrating the components and principles for making electricity.

This extraordinary technological resource must be preserved. The WWC welcomes the support of SIA for preserving this important ?American Treasure.? For further information on this major preservation and environmental issue, please contact the WWC, Inc., Phone: 201-967-0133; Fax: 201-967-7517; Webmaster at: Http://www.HWWC.org