Built 1906 NRHP Reference # 84002747 Opened 1906 Architectural style Renaissance architecture People also search for Charles Buck House | MPS Stoneham MRA Designated CP January 18, 1990 Area 4,047 m² Added to NRHP 13 April 1984 | |
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Location Woodland Rd., Stoneham, Massachusetts Part of Middlesex Fells Reservoirs Historic District (#89002249) | ||
The Metropolitan District Commission Pumping House is a historic water pumping station, adjacent to Spot Pond in the Middlesex Fells Reservation, on Woodland Road in Stoneham, Massachusetts. The Romanesque Revival building was designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge and completed in 1901, as part of the Metropolitan District Commission's (MDC's) expansion of water service in the area. It is built of yellow brick with limestone trim. It has quoined corners, and features rusticated arched windows. It was extended with a side ell in 1923. In 1975 the building was extensively damaged by fire. Its tile roof and clerestory were lost, replaced by the present asphalt shingle hip roof.
When built, the building housed three steam-powered engines capable of pumping 90 million gallons per day; one of these machines was moved here from the Mystic Pumping Station in Somerville. These engines were replaced between the late 1920s and 1950s with large diesel engines. The building (along with an adjacent gatehouse) was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, and included in the Middlesex Fells Reservoirs Historic District in 1990. Spot Pond has been relegated to emergency service by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, success to the MDC. The pumping station now delivers water to area communities from a covered tank elsewhere in the reservation.