Time for what I’m sure you’ve been waiting for — today’s Newton Infrastructure Crowdsourced Trivia Question.
Right on the banks of the Charles River, just before Elliot St runs from Upper Falls into Needham, at the edge of the parking lot of the mill complex there – there is a small curious brick building.
The plaque on the building says that it’s a pumping station built by the City of Newton in 1990 during Mayor Ted Mann’s tenure.
So my questions are” What is it. I presume it’s pumping water – but from where? Not the Charles River? Where’s it pumping water to? Why in 1990 did we suddenly need a pumping station there?
Inquiring Idle minds need to know
It is a SEWER pumping station that pumps wastewater. At surface level the building is small, the pump station has multiple floors underground.
I love the idea of this little building being the tip of an massive underground sewage pumping iceberg.
Is it a coincidence that it’s on the town boundary? .. or did we build it quietly and then surreptitiously connect to Needham’s sewage system one night. Now we just pump everything across the river and let them deal with it ;-)
The still unanswered question though: Does Gayle Smalley have encyclopedic knowledge of Newton infrastructure ….. or is she just making it up?
Jerry, don’t tell anybody but we Needhamites constructed and reconstructed an even mightier one a couple thousand feet upstream, which allegedly empties into an MWRA “interceptor” sewer line bound for Deer Island…but which might just be pumping our slop over to you before you pump it back to us.
Jerry,
We at the MWRA always used to say that we were #1 in the #2 business. I could tell you a lot of stories . . .
Gayle’s correct that this is a sewage pumping station, and there is another one that was rebuilt during that time on Quinobequin Road. While gravity usually does the job, every now and then you need to pump this stuff to get it further downstream.
A story from the late 1980’s. I was giving a lesson to seventh grade girls at Winsor School in Boston about the sewer system and took them on a tour of a headworks facility near Northeastern University. There are large channels through which the wastewater travels on the way to Deer Island. Hanging near each channel was a life preserver. Amy Vanderwalker, daughter of Newton photographer Peter Vanderwalker asked, “What are the life preservers for?” I replied, “In case someone falls in.” Next day, Peter reported to me that when Amy got home and repeated my answer, she said, “Dad, life preservers! I’d rather die!”
@Paul Levy – We regularly spotted a septic system company truck on Cape Code who’s slogan was “A straight flush, beats a full house” – Ah there’s nothing like a good bit of sewage humor. Brings out the 12 year old in all of us.
My name is Paul Kochs. I designed that little building when I was on the Newton Upper Falls Historic Commision. Originally they came in with a hip roofed design that sort of looked like a Pizza Hut. I really enjoyed this project
Thanks for writing Paul. Was the original design at least an historically accurate Pizza Hut :-)
A little trivia tidbit more. While we are likely getting Needham’s sewage from the pictured pump station, we are also gettingWellesley’s sludge when there are large storms and their sewers are overwhelmed. It crosses the Charles and is sent uphill to Waban Ave. But we all know that doesn’t smell!
I found this historic photo of the original pumping station.
https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:gb19g323v
As noted previously, it’s a pumping station for sewage and storm water. It’s Part of a network of 14 such pumping stations
https://www.bidnet.com/bneattachments?/309649696.pdf (pg 6-7)