Under Boston · DETOUR · Dorchester (Columbia Point)
On New Year's Day 1884 this building started lifting Boston's sewage about 35 feet and sending it under the harbor.
From New Year's Day 1884, Boston's sewage went to a granite castle on Columbia Point to be lifted about thirty-five feet and sent through a tunnel under the harbor. Its steam engines had flywheels of 72.5 tons apiece, and its architect also restored the Old State House. Take the Red Line three stops past South Station to JFK/UMass and walk toward the water.
This is a detour on Under Boston.
The plate
Collected on site
435 Mount Vernon St, Boston, MA 02125
Directions
Before the new system, the city tested 351 house drains with peppermint. Fifty-five percent were defective, per the city's 1885 engineering history.
More footnotes on the story card, in the app.
In these collections: Under Your Feet
Sources (7)
- Main Drainage Works of the City of BostonEliot C. Clarke (Principal Assistant Engineer, in charge); Rockwell and Churchill, City Printers · 1885
- Calf Pasture Pumping Station Complex - Study Report (Petition 263.18, amended Nov 1 2024)Boston Landmarks Commission · 2024-11-01
- Calf Pasture Pumping Station timelineUMass Boston (blogs.umb.edu/pumpingstation) · n.d.
- UMass Boston Readies Calf Pasture Pumping Station for RedevelopmentHistoric Boston Inc. · 2021-11-23
- Old State House - Boston Landmarks Commission Study Report (amended, Petition 175.A)Boston Landmarks Commission · n.d. (amended)
- Calf Pasture Pumping Station soon to be a Boston LandmarkHistoric Boston Inc. · 2024-11-19
- Touring the interior of the pumping stationUMass Boston, Calf Pasture Pumping Station blog · 2013-04-02