1879 Houston Waterworks

1879 Houston Waterworks is a building located in Houston, Texas listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Houston Waterworks Company pumped about 2 million gallons of water from the Buffalo Bayou daily when it was founded in 1879 to extinguish fires, such as the one that broke out on Main Street a few days after the plant was erected. After natural reserves of drinking water were discovered in Houston, the Waterworks company out-competed local wells. The city took over the plant in the early 20th century when it found that Waterworks was mixing Bayou water into the drinking supply.