Calf Pasture Pumping Station Timeline

1875

• A study initiated in Boston to research pollution and water contamination causing health issues including cholera, typhoid and dysentery — This study leads to the construction of the Boston Main Drainage System (BMDS)

1877-1884

• Construction of the BMDS –included 25 miles of intercepting sewers, Calf Pasture pumping station in Dorchester, Dorchester Bay Tunnel, and outfall pipe at Moon Island in Boston Harbor

1879

• Landfilling and construction for pumping station begin on the Calf Pasture peninsula – overseen by George Albert Clough
• Facilities built for coal ships to dock at the end of the original Calf Pasture peninsula; dock dredged, stone seawalls constructed, wharf built in front of one seawall; long pier built out to protect sewer running out from pumping station
• Tornado causes $1,000 worth of damage to construction site (1)

1883

• Calf Pasture Pumping Station built

1884

• Calf Pasture Pumping Station officially begins pumping on New Years Day

1889

• Metropolitan Sewerage System (MSS) formed – to address parts of Boston lying outside of the service area of BMDS

1880s-1930s

• Filling in area of Calf Pasture peninsula – created the land which is now home to: Columbus Park; Day Boulevard; Morrissey Boulevard

1919

• Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) created to oversee the MSS (now Department of Conservation and Recreation); the Boston Main Drainage System still owned by the city

1940

• Leavitt and Worthington pumps in Calf Pasture Pumping Station dismantled and removed (due to a crack in one of them) — system changed from steam to electric power

1946

• Coal room roof collapses, section is demolished because it is no longer needed (no coal was being stored anymore due to the switch to electricity).

1953

• Columbia Point housing project built as one of nation’s first public housing projects — first tenants move in in 1954

1952

• Nut Island Wastewater Treatment Plant opened in Quincy, MA

1968

• Deer Island Treatment Plant opens in Boston Harbor
• Calf Pasture Pumping Station closes with the opening of the Deer Island facility – CPPS is maintained as a backup for the Deer Island Plant during wet weather

1971

• Construction of University of Massachusetts Boston begins

1975

• “The Pumphouse: A Proposal to Recycle the Calf Pasture Pumping Station at Columbia Point as a Community/University Center” is published

1977

• Ownership and operating responsibility for sewer system transferred from the City of Boston to the Boston Water and Sewer Commission (BWSC)

1979

• The John F. Kennedy Library is formally dedicated

1985

• possession, control and operation of MDC Water and Sewage Divisions granted to Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA)

1986

• Massachusetts Archive building constructed on Columbia Point
• Construction of the new Harbor Point Complex, to replace the dilapidated Columbia Point housing projects, begins — Harbor Point Complex will be a mixed-income community; is now the home of many UMass Boston students

1990

• Calf Pasture Pumping Station building receives National Register designation

1995

• Dorchester residents create a tourism brochure to educate visitors of interesting local spots, includes the Calf Pasture Pumping Station

2007

• Historic Boston Inc. tells the Boston Globe that they are preparing a “reuse feasibility study” on the building

2011

• UMass Boston “officially” acquires Calf Pasture pumping station – in exchange for $2.1 million in scholarships for Boston Public School students
• Obsolete electrical transformers were removed from the building, new fencing installed, and debris, trees, and shrubs taken out

1. Clark, Eliot C. Main Drainage Works of the City of Boston. Boston: Rockwell and Churchill, 1885.

2.  Kennison, Karl R. “Sewage Works Development in the Massachusetts Metropolitan District.” Sewage and Industrial Wastes 22.4 (1950): 477-89. JSTOR. Web. 06 Mar. 2013.

3.  Marwell, Stuart. Calf Pasture Pumping Station. N.p.: n.p.

4.  National Register of Historic Places, Calf Pasture Pumping Station Complex.

5.  Roessner, Jane. A Decent Place to Live: From Columbia Point to Harbor Point: A Community History. Boston: Northeastern UP, 2000.

6.  Taylor, Earl. “Calf Pasture Pumping Station.” Dorchester Atheneum.

Footnotes:

1. “Sudden Destruction: A Terrible Tornado Along the Whole Atlantic Coast.” The Washington Post, 08/20/1879.