The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1882-06-30


kept ahead OF the capacity OF the works.
The present plan is to anticipate the growth
Of the city and keep ahead with the works
all the time, and not have the bowls for
water which have been periodical for the
last twenty-five years.
Richmond has always been ambitious to
have a good water-supply. Soon after the
beginning Of the present century wooden
pipes were laid from
BLOODY-RUN SPRING
(Which breaks forth in a rayine between
Libby Hill and Cbimborazo UilD into
Rockets and thence up Main street as far
as the Bell Tavern, where the St. Charles
now stands, and great number OF people
received their supply from this source.
The spring has s bountiiul yield to this
day, and the water is bright, soft, and
sweet.
Another effort in the way OF water-sur-
ply was the piping OF water from the basin
| TO lower levels in the city. Mordecai, in
his "reminiscences, says that "water was
conducted from the basin in wooden pipes
as far as the Market bridge" (Old Markell
This was the enterprise OF Mr.. Spotswood
! ID. Crenshaw, proprietor OF the Columbian
Hotel, and downtown merchants. Plugs
were placed at o number OF street-corners
so that the teams OF country people could
be conveniently supplied. The last sur
yiving plug OF
TuE BASIN wATER-W0RKS
was at the Richmond Banking and 1n-
surance Company's corner Main and Thir-
teenth), and stood in daily use until the
basin was partially filled in, when its source
was cut of. To the great comfort on beasts
OF burden, its stream was allowed TO pour
| forth increasingly. Many and many times,
when the supply in the city pipes was low,
| have indignant citizens set themselves
down and written TO the newspapers to
complain OF the shame and disgrace that,
when the hills were withou. water, a three
inch stream was allowed to gush forth and
waste itself at this corner! As general
thing they felt rather cheap when told at the
newspaper Office that the water came not
out OF the reservoir. but out OF the basin.
Besides the rather extensive pipe lines
from Bloody-Run spring and the basin
there were various other modes OF supply
ing the city with water. There were two
or three fine
One, which rises near the eastern foun-
tain, is piped to Franklin and Twelfth
streets, and sends forth an uninterrupted
stream Of clear water at all times. n well
which was in the Governors yard on the
Governor-street side was piped down
to Franklin, up Franklin to Twelfth, and
down Twelfth to Cary, to hotels and
| business-houses.
The paper-mill, at a date not known to
this writer, piped the spring known as
THE sHoT-TOwER SPRING,
under the front OF what is now S0I east
| Grace street (he two narrow tenements(
and carried the same across the basin to
their mill. They needed pure, clear water,
and could not OF course rely upon the ba-
sin. This shot-toWer supply Is in use by
them to this day, but proving insufficient
has been reinforced Of late years by an arte
sian well sunk by the Paper-Mill Company
The shot-tOwer spring at one time had {
partial outlet from the hydrant corner
Main and Ninth; that is now supplied
from the city mains.
With
THE VARIOUS WORKS
mentioned, and springs and wells too
numerous to count up, the city from thu
present Dispatch Office to Rockets was wei
! supplied with water for domestic pur
poses; but the hills were badly OFF, ant
there was no supply except from the rive
and canal for fre-engines.
After lengthy period OF agitation th'
city in 1880 employed Albert Stein, Esq,
native Of Prussia (born in 1857 and dice
at Mobile 1870, and he proceeded to cree
the
CITY wATER-wORKs,
which were opened in 1882, and have since
that year been time and again added to ant
! improved. The original outlay for pumps
&C., reservoir and pipes, was S96, 900.
The dam built by General Iarvie anC
furnished to the city on certain terms wa
OF wood. II was in 1874 substituted by
one Of granite. TO be allowed TO run th'
: pipes through the
; CLARKE's SPRING
property, the city gave Major Clarke sup
DIV OF water forever. but long since eXtin
guished that right by purchasing that prop
erty, which Of late years has been occu
pied by the smallpox hospital buildings.
MARSHALL RESERVOIR
, when first erected was only half its presen
) size. The brick-work was done by the lat
William c. Allen. The northern half o
it was added in 1874, and the brick-worl
done by Glinn Il Davis.
In constructing the old reservoir Mr.
Stein put In filter. He had made obser
walton OF James-rivcr water for two years
and he knew what stuff he had to dea
with. lie wanted TO clear 1t of the heavies
matter. His plan was that the water shoul,
} rise into the reservoir through bed o
sand and gravel. The filter did not sue
ceed indeed, he regarded il but rs an ex
pertinent, and always had doubt abou
what would be its practical effect.
WAR WELLS.
During the war, when ice was not to b.
had except in minute quantities and at fab
uious prices, and when bodies OF troop
were always moving through the city, an,
nearly always hungry and thirsty, and by
drants often failed TO yield. the City Coun
, ell decided that considerable number @
,, wells should be sunk and pumps put int,
them. One OF these wells was on the ives
side Of Eleventh street near to Nam street
In repairing the pavement there recent,
some remains Of the pump were found
and people having forgotten all about tn,
!, war wells, were almost rs much mystifie,
, as II they had struck buried city.
These wells did good service in thei
time, but have been closed up under tn
conviction that the water Is impure; an,
, since the war, in fact only few year
back, a large expenditure was made for tn
, turbine wheel, house, and fixtures, and 70
the Hollywood steam-pump and for the ne,
reservoir.
TIE NEW RESERVOIR,
, built under the plans and superintendent
' OF Colonel w. Il. Cutshaw, City Engineer
. was finished and water turned In Januar