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The Hackensack Water Works: ...continued
Sparkling History, Cloudy Future

The Little Falls Filtration Plant

With his reputation established, Fuller opened a consulting office in New York in 1899, setting the stage for his involvement with the Hackensack Water Company. In the Fall of 1899 the East Jersey Water Company opened its new Pumping Station in Little Falls, about 12 miles from New Milford, and hired Fuller to plan and supervise the construction of a filtration plant to clean Passaic River water that frequently contained "large amounts of amorphous matter" that gave it a "dirty appearance." Fuller later noted: "It is gratifying to report that the Water Company instructed the writer not to spare expense in making the plant capable of giving thoroughly efficient service." In 1901 East Jersey began building the plant and Fuller formed a partnership with Rudolph Hering, a fellow sanitary engineer prominent in sewage treatment. With offices at 170 Broadway in New York, the firm of Hering and Fuller described itself as "Hydraulic Engineers and Sanitary Experts." East Jersey opened its filtration plant in September 1902 with Fuller overseeing its first year of operation.

Eleven sanitary engineers reviewed Fuller's Little Falls report in April 1903. R.S. Weston wrote: "Certainly, the experience which will undoubtedly be gained from the operation of this plant will establish the system of rapid filtration upon a firm, rational, and scientific basis." George S. Whipple wrote that the Little Falls plant "is the first adequate demonstration of the principles of mechanical filtration applied on a large scale, and its many unique features distinguish it sharply from the conventional type of mechanical filters used heretofore." Two reviewers would later assist Fuller at New Milford. William B. Fuller (no relation) wrote "the completion of this plant stands as a milestone marking distinct progress in the art of mechanical filtration...and from a constructive point of view, in that it has been constructed throughout almost entirely of concrete. This has been done with an idea of making the entire structure as durable and permanent as possible." Noting that he visited the plant frequently during construction and during its early operation, John H. Gregory stated: "The design of mechanical filter plants in the future will, it is to be hoped, be modeled...closely after the Little Falls work."

the New Milford Filtration Plant

While East Jersey was completing its filtration plant, the Hackensack Water Company concluded that it needed a reservoir to increase its water storage and to allow some sedimentation prior to pumping. The company bought farms and woodlots upstream from the Pumping Station and began building the 250 million gallon Oradell Reservoir in December 1901. In holding off on building a filtration plant, the company's officers probably "considered that the recent experiments in the art of sand filtration made it wise to wait and see whether Mr. Hazen's slow sand filters or the new "American" rapid sand filters of George W. Fuller were better." The officers were no doubt awaiting the results of the Little Falls Filtration Plant located just 12 miles away.

In 1902 a major flood and the construction of the Oradell Reservoir stirred up new complaints and newspaper stories about the Hackensack Water Company's colored, fishy, and unsafe water. When Board of Health investigators found chicken yards, pig farms, outhouses, and stagnant ponds along the river, the County medical association declared the company's water as "unfit for drinking purposes,... and recommended that it be boiled before use." While Superintendent French had earlier stated the company's intention to build a filter plant, he released tests by eminent bacteriologists showing that the water was clean, and thereby gained more time to study the two filtration alternatives. When the Little Falls Filtration Plant opened in September 1902, its success convinced the company that mechanical filtration was preferable to acres and acres of slow sand filters, which wouldn't fit on Van Buskirk Island anyway. In November the company hired Hering & Fuller to design its filtration plant, which it started building in 1903.

When Engineering Record featured two articles on "The Mechanical Filters of the Hackensack Water Company" in November 1904, it described Hering and Fuller's improvements as "a considerable departure from previous practice." They designed the settling basin as a separate structure with a capacity of 12 million gallons, nearly seven times larger than the relatively inaccessible basin built within the Little Falls plant. To prepare the treatment solutions, Hering & Fuller designed an innovative Coagulant House with a four-story tower that enabled chemicals to be lifted by a 3,000-pound. Otis elevator to the fourth floor mixing room, from where "the chemicals and solutions move wholly by gravity to the points where they are applied to the water." The Coagulant House included generous space for chemical and biological laboratories, reflecting the growing importance of on-site analysis following the initial operation of Little Falls. Other innovations at New Milford include numerous improvements to the filters, strainers, and collectors, and the extensive use of concrete for durability in the "groined arch construction" of the clear wells and in all of the filter boxes.

The company put the plant in service 1905 and for its dedication in 1906 printed a pamphlet "designed to bring to the attention of our patrons some of the more important features of the system which we have installed for the purpose of purifying our water supply." (See sidebar on page 23). The pamphlet extolled the virtues of filtration "appreciated in every home": "a glass of water becomes the refreshing beverage that it should be; the bath is a luxury available to all; the linen of the weekly washing comes from the tubs spotlessly white." It stated that "one of the foremost benefits derived from filtration is in the removal of germs, or bacteria (that are) a direct menace to health." The company noted that it provides "model laboratories and the services of a competent Chemist" to ensure that the filtration "process is constantly under supervision, with the result that water of the same uniform degree of excellence is delivered at all times."

In a 1915 evaluation of the New Milford Pumping Station, Fuller identified six mechanical filtration plants built in the first decade of the 20th century Little Falls, 1902; New Milford, 1905; Harrisburg, 1905; Toledo, 1906; Cincinnati, 1908; and Columbus, 1908. All the other plants have been demolished except for Cincinnati, where some original portions have survived modernization and remain in use. In Little Falls, the East Jersey Water Company's 1898 Engine House is still in use, albeit with modern equipment, and the 1898 Boiler House survives as well. With its contemporaries gone or altered, the New Milford Filtration Plant is thus the earliest example of American mechanical filtration on a large scale, and as noted above, "one of the great pioneering plants ... which laid the groundwork for most of the later filter plants in the nation."

Continuing Improvements

With demand for water still growing, the company began building the Woodcliff Lake Reservoir five miles north of the Pumping Station for additional water storage and opened it in 1905. While the company doubled the size of the Boiler House in 1906 in preparation for more pumps, Superintendent French de-vised an interim plan to boost pressure in its Hudson County distribution system. The company built the New Durham Pumping Station ten miles southeast of Hackensack in 1909, enabling it to take the outmoded Weehawken Water Tower out of service. In 1911 the company built its largest and final addition to the New Milford Engine House, doubling its floor area and tripling its volume. The design replicated the station's hipped roofs and traditional detailing on the three-story exterior while creating a completely open interior space tall enough to accommodate three enormous VTE pumps. With a capacity of 20 MGD, the No. 7 Allis Chalmers pump today towers over newer pumps which replaced the other two VTEs installed in 1911, each of which had a capacity of 7.5 MGD.

In 1912 the company added eight additional filter beds to the north side of the Filtration Plant, increasing its capacity to 48 MGD. Illustrating rapid advances in steam technology, the company in 1915 replaced the old Worthington pump in the 1886 Engine House with the first centrifugal turbine on the site, the No. 3 Allis Chalmers. While it is only a fraction of the size of No. 7 installed four years earlier, No. 3 has a capacity of 36 MGD, nearly twice as much. When the company built a new round chimney on the northeast corner of the Boiler House in 1918, its primary building campaign came to end.

In the 1920s the company once again played a leading role in water purification improvements. Its chief chemist, George R. Spalding, was an MIT graduate and former employee of the East Jersey Water Company and Lederle Laboratories in Pearl River, which had tested Hackensack's water for years. Spalding conducted experiments in the New Milford laboratories to treat water with activated carbon to remove tastes and odors. While the effectiveness of activated carbon was well known, Spalding developed a successful treatment process that the company began using in 1931 and which became "standard in water systems throughout the world." Spalding's contribution to providing "pure and palatable water" won him the American Water Works Association's George Warren Fuller Award in 1931. The association had honored Fuller by naming its annual award after the "father of sanitary engineering in the United States" for his many contributions to the water works industry.

In the 1930s the company built a machine shop on the east side of the Filtration House, and subdivided the Settling Basin to add mechanical paddles for increasing the rate of coagulation. Between 1929 and 1948 it upgraded pumping equipment with four new steam turbines and replaced the coal boilers with oil-fired boilers. In 1955 it extended the Filtration House with six additional filters. While the brick extension complements the symmetry and hipped roofs of the 1903 Filtration House, it is otherwise modern in design with horizontal aluminum windows. In the late 1950s the company installed its first electric pumps in the 1911 Engine House. In the 1960s it tore down the old Coal House south of New Milford Avenue, which was the original Boiler House built in 1882, and erected a modern engine house with two electric pumps. The company operated the No. 7 and No. 3 steam pumps over seven decades, an exceptionally long period as steam pumps typically lasted about 30 years.

Former employees and people who visited or worked at New Milford recall its operation with awe, and how the staff "immaculately maintained the impressive old plant." Ted Hoffman of Paramus practically grew up in the plant and remembers how master machinists like his father "could fix any of the machines or their parts", and how "their sense of mission and their love of the big steam engines" really impressed him as a child. The men maintained the equipment in spotless condition, even polishing the brass fittings and plates. Miles Kuchar of Montvale and his father did contract work on the site over a period of four decades that included installing new boilers and pumps. He recalls that "Hackensack Water was a triple "A" Company. Once you worked there, you had a job for life." Fred Schelhas of Dumont, who worked there for 34 years and retired as assistant manager, remembers how the staff routinely handled floods: "There was no way that we ever needed to wear any kind of boot inside the plant. Our pumps always took care of any water seepage. It never flooded inside the building all the years I was there."

The New Milford Pumping Station Today

The New Milford Pumping Station survives today as a remarkable and unique example of the historic development of municipal water supply in America with pioneering purification and delivery systems. A walk through the complex provides a rare opportunity to see what a large-scale municipal water works looked like prior to World War I. The importance of early purification engineering is apparent in the design and scale of the Settling Basin and the Filtration House. The complexity and ingenuity of filtration technology is evident in its Operating and Pipe Galleries, Chemical Tanks, Mixing and Machinery Rooms, Filters, and Laboratory.

The magnificence of steam engineering is unmistakable within the Pumping Station. According to stream historian Conrad Milster, head of Pratt Institute's landmark power plant in Brooklyn, "New Milford has a unique, unparalleled collection of machinery which is not only impressive in its own right but traces the technological development of water supply." The scale, complexity, and detailing of the No. 7 Allis Chalmers VTE illustrates the apex of the reciprocating steam engine at a time "when machinery, even though built on a massive scale, was still understandable to the average person." The evolution of steam turbines is illustrated by the No. 3 Allis Chalmers and the smaller pumps of the 1920s and 1940s. As Milster notes, "The station represents all the major steps in the development of pumping machinery - an ideal collection (illustrating) the importance of water supply to the public."

The buildings and structures at New Milford display a splendid integration of engineering and architecture, combining classical design with technological innovations. Period craftsmanship is everywhere, in molded brickwork, carved brownstone trim, terra cotta date medallions, wood windows with stained glass transoms, wide entrance doorways with arched tops, and slate roofs with copper detailing and molded wooden eaves. On the interior elegant structural components illustrate evolutionary advances in construction engineering, from fine geometric carpentry and chamfered timber framing to intricate steel trusses.

Today Van Buskirk Island and the adjacent river corridor look a lot like they did in the early 20th century, with the water works, roads, and open space integrated with native vegetation along the river banks. The corridor includes: the Oradell Reservoir about one-half mile upstream from the Pumping Station; small diversion dams built in the 1880s just north of the station that create a pond with four wooded islands; and an intake reservoir with iron sluice gates on the west side of the island where the historic mill pond was located. The island has two historic bridges ­ the Elm Street Bridge built in 1892 and the Madison Avenue Bridge built in 1902. Despite the recent growth of wild vegetation, the water company's landscaping of lawns, formally cut shrubs, and towering trees is still apparent.

With the exception of some small equipment parts that were removed, the site has remained largely untouched since 1990. In 2000 the County covered most of the windows and doors with plywood, but little other maintenance has taken place and the buildings are slowly deteriorating. The site is fenced but vegetation has grown around several portions of it.

After several years of studying alternative uses for the site, Bergen County, Oradell, and the Water Works Conservancy in 2000 began negotiating a three-party agreement for the County to develop the island as a passive park and to transfer the historic buildings to the Conservancy for restoration as a museum and environmental education center, with Oradell taking over if the Conservancy should fail. The plan included the County's transfer to the Conservancy of a $575,000 preservation grant it had received from the N.J. Historic Trust for stabilizing the historic buildings and about $766,000 remaining from the Hackensack Water Company's $1,000,000 donation grant. In the spring of 2001 the relatively small town of Oradell decided that it could not assume the financial burden of taking over the complex if restoration efforts failed, which seems obvious especially since the water company donated the site to the County and not the town. The County then decided to proceed with its "walled garden" alternative without the Conservancy.

Last December the County presented its plan to the New Jersey Historic Sites Council, which reviews public projects that impact properties listed on the State Register of Historic Places, to demolish most of the complex, saving parts of it for park office and exhibition space, turning the No. 7 Allis Chalmers steam engine into an open air exhibit, and planting gardens within fragments of the old brick walls. Bergen officials argued that taxpayers couldn't afford to preserve the buildings nor risk the liabilities involved in allowing people to visit buildings within a flood plain. While recognizing the financial issues, the Historic Sites Council cited numerous instances of historic buildings being successfully preserved and occupied in floodplains, including New Bridge Landing in Bergen County and Harper's Ferry in West Virginia. In rejecting the County's proposal in February, the Historic Sites Council noted that the "walled garden" plan did not follow the U.S. Department of the Interior's Standards for Historic Properties, which is required by state law, and instructed the County to develop a preservation plan for the site that preserves the historic significance of its buildings and structures.

Under state law, Bradley Campbell, the new commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection, had 120 days following Bergen County's application to the Historic Sites Council to confirm or reject the Historic Sites Council's recommendation. That would have required Campbell to make a decision by March 25th. Instead, Campbell requested that all parties concerned agree to a 90-day extension so that he could meet with both sides in an attempt to foster a more conciliatory approach, as well as give himself time to study the issues involved.

Historic preservationists were encouraged by Campbell's subsequent decision to order preservation of Black Rock, a native Native American site in Sussex County, just before the Vernon Township Committee was going to issue a contract for construction of a soccer field on the site. Historic preservationists viewed Vernon's effort as an attempt to circumvent the normal historic preservation review process and are hopeful that Campbell's decision in the Sussex case is a harbinger of his ruling on preservation of the Hackensack Water Works.

The primary issues of the Hackensack Water Works struggle are the stewardship of public resources ­ financial, environmental, historical ­ public safety, and the ability of the people to safeguard their heritage. The County's concerns about overburdening taxpayers and protecting the public are understandable, and its goal to preserve Van Buskirk Island as a passive park is laudable, as is the goal of environmentalists to conserve the river corridor as a nature preserve. However, the dedication of people from Bergen, the state, and beyond, to save the Hackensack Water Works reflects the desire of people all over the world to celebrate human achievement by preserving great buildings and artifacts.

There are numerous examples in New Jersey and around the country of successful partnerships between government and non-profit groups that leverage public resources with private funds to restore and manage publicly owned historic sites, including Morven, the former governor's mansion in Princeton, and Ellis Island. The successful preservation of historic buildings within passive parks is also common, as in the Fairmount Water Works. As noted above, there are also many examples of successfully managing the risks associated with floodplains and other hazards.

All things considered, the Hackensack Water Works presents a golden opportunity in New Jersey for public officials and private citizens to work closely together to preserve our common heritage so we can better understand and appreciate how the ingenuity and dedication of past generations has contributed to the quality of our lives.

Clifford Zink is an architectural historian and preservation consultant based in Princeton. He is the author of Spanning the Industrial Age: The History of the John A. Roebling's Sons Company in Trenton, N.J. 1848-1974. This article is based on research for a National Landmark Nomination of the Hackensack Water Works sponsored by the Water Works Conservancy. The article is a precursor to a book on the Hackensack Water Works that is being funded in part by a grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission to the Conservancy. The book, which will include oral histories, will be published later this year.

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