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Director | Eric Peterson |
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Chairperson | Katherine Burton Jones |
Owner | Metropolitan Waterworks Museum Inc. |
Public transit access | Reservoir ![]() |
Website | waterworksmuseum |
![]() Interactive map highlighting the location of the museum | |
Location | 2450 Beacon Street, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, US |
Coordinates | 42°19′54.088″N 71°9′20.329″W / 42.33169111°N 71.15564694°W |
Architect | Arthur H. Vinal |
Architectural style(s) | Richardsonian Romanesque |
Official name | Chestnut Hill High Service Pumping Station |
Designated | January 18, 1990 |
Part of | Chestnut Hill Reservoir Historic District |
Reference no. | 89002271 |
The Waterworks Museum is a museum in the Chestnut Hill Waterworks building, originally a high-service pumping station of the Boston Metropolitan Waterworks.[1] It contains well-preserved mechanical engineering devices in a Richardsonian Romanesque building.[2]
During its busiest years, the waterworks pumped as much as a hundred million gallons of water each day.[3]: 125 The station was decommissioned in the 1970s, and later some of its buildings were turned into condominiums.[4] After a period of disuse, the pumping station was restored, and in 2007 the Waterworks Preservation Trust was set up to oversee its conversion into a museum.[5] In March 2011, the building reopened to the public as the Waterworks Museum.[6]
The former Metropolitan Waterworks' high-service pumping station in Boston (originated by Arthur Vinal, 1885–1887 and expanded by Edmund Wheelwright, 1897–98) was recently opened as the Waterworks Museum.