The Calf Pasture Pumping Station Complex is a historic sewage treatment facility at 435 Mount Vernon Street on

Columbia Point Columbia Point is a high mountain summit of the Crestones in the Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The thirteener is located east by south ( bearing 102°) of the Town of Crestone in Saguache County, Colora ...

in the Dorchester section of

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which was built in the 1880s. The surrounding community was, in the 17th and 18th centuries, and through to the mid-19th century, a calf pasture: a place where nearby Dorchester residents took their calves for grazing. It was largely an uninhabited marshland on the Dorchester peninsula. Its size was originally . Many landfills, subsequent to that time, have enlarged the land size to in the 20th century."Calf Pasture Pumping Station"
, Dorchester Atheneum In the 1880s, the calf pasture was used as a Boston sewer line and pumping station, known as the Calf Pasture Pumping Station Complex. This large granite structure, the first sewage treatment station built in the city, was built in 1883. It still stands and in its time was a model for treating sewage and helping to promote cleaner and healthier urban living conditions. It pumped waste to a remote treatment facility on Moon Island in

Boston Harbor Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, located adjacent to Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the Northeastern United States. History 17th century Since its dis ...

, and served as a model for other systems worldwide. This system remained in active use and was the Boston Sewer system's headworks, handling all of the city's sewage, until 1968 when a new treatment facility was built on Deer Island. The pumping station is also architecturally significant as a Richardsonian Romanesque designed by the then Boston city architect, George Clough. It is also the only remaining 19th century building on Columbia Point. The facility was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1990. This building is currently under study as a

Boston Landmark A Boston Landmark is a designation by the Boston Landmarks Commission for historic buildings and sites throughout the city of Boston based on the grounds that it has historical, social, cultural, architectural or aesthetic significance to New Engla ...

by the

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. In January 2020, the

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Building Authority issued a

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from developers to restore the facility and to construct a mixed-use facility on an adjacent 10-acre site, receiving eight proposals in response by the following September. In July 2021, UMass officials issued a request for proposal for the facility and the adjacent site. In April 2024, the

held a virtual public meeting on whether to designate the facility as a city landmark. The Commission approved a report recommending the site as official city landmark designation, pending official approval.

References

External links

Histories of the Calf Pasture Pumping Station
- Blog created by graduate students in the history department at UMass Boston

- Northeast Architecture, architectural photography and history
Boston 1903 map
- see the Calf Pasture on Columbia Point in the lower middle right hand side just above Savin Hill {{University of Massachusetts Boston Infrastructure completed in 1883 Sewage pumping stations Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts George A. Clough buildings Buildings and structures in Boston National Register of Historic Places in Boston Dorchester, Boston Sewerage infrastructure in the United States

See also

References

External links