City of Fort Worth City Filtration Plant

The City of Fort Worth built the Holly Pump Station in 1892, near the banks of the Clear Fork of the Trinity River, to meet the increasing demand for water. The city’s first waterworks facility pumped water directly from the Trinity River and a series of artesian wells. After the completion of Lake Worth in 1914, plans were made for adding a water treatment facility to the Holly Pump Station. Under the direction of Water Commissioner J.C. Lord, the project was awarded to the contracting firm Westinghouse, Church, Kerr & Co. Inc., an engineering and constructing company based in New York. Steam shovels broke ground in June of 1918, and the project was completed in February of 1919, at a cost of $250,000.

The City of Fort Worth Water Department documented the construction process through the series of photographs collected in this album.