One of the many Texas Engineering Landmarks in celebration of Texas ASCE’s Centennial: 1913-2013 “Engineering a Better Texas.” Visit them all!
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HOLLY PUMP STATION AND NORTH HOLLY WATER TREATMENT PLANT, ASCE TEXAS SECTION HISTORIC CIVIL ENGINEERING LANDMARK (HCEL) 1992
The Holly Pump Station (opened 1892) and North Holly Water Treatment plant (opened 1911) comprise the first waterworks system constructed by the City of Fort Worth.
Fort Worth was incorporated in 1873 with a population of 500, but the arrival of the Texas and Pacific Railroads in 1876 sparked incredible growth. From 1880-1890, the city's population quadrupled. The water supply, then dependent on shallow wells, cisterns, springs, and the run of the Trinity River, was stretched thin and water-borne illnesses were a major problem.
A company was created by Captain B.B. Paddock in 1882 for the construction of a private water system, which was purchased by the city in 1884 to launch the Fort Worth Water Department.
To meet the city’s astronomical growth, the Holly Pump Station was built in 1892. The city invested in the new technology of the time: including 5 million gallon low-lift centrifugal pumps, sedimentation basins, rapid sand filters, a million-gallon clearwell, and a laboratory to facilitate chemical and bacteriological tests. Major purchases were made from the Holly Water Works Co. of New York, which furnished the pumps and designed the plant – thus the complex’s name. The initial system cleaned two million gallons a day.
But the story doesn’t end there.
In 1897, the City Engineer recommended the construction of a water supply lake. Started in November 1911, Lake Worth dam was completed and the lake filled in 1914. Texas had only eight lakes in 1913 including Lake Worth. Hard to believe today: Lake Worth was the largest water supply lake in the state and among the largest in the country at the time it was built.
Concurrently with the building of Lake Worth, the City of Fort Worth constructed its first water treatment plant: the Holly Filtration plant. Operations began January 31, 1912, using water from the Clear Fork of the Trinity River. (The 6.5-mile pipeline bringing water to the Holly plant from Lake Worth was not completed until May 1916.) The Holly WTP plant commenced full operations in 1918. After a major expansion in 1948, this plant became the North Holly Water Treatment Plant. A new water treatment built just south of the North Holly plant. The South Holly Water Treatment Plant was completed in 1958.
The total cost of the project – including pump and boiler house, two engine foundations, a brick smokestack, 12 8-inch wells, a suction crib, a standpipe, and pipelines, valves, and other components of the distribution system – was $687,000. The plant continued to grow over the years. Completion of the treatment plant’s second expansion in 1923 brought a dramatic decrease in the incidence of disease. The facility finally reached its ultimate size (79 MGD) fifty years after its initial construction.
Unlike many early waterworks facilities, through continual upgrades and renovations, parts of the system are still functional; the updated plant is still a critical, high-service part of Fort Worth’s water supply system.
FURTHER READING:
Fort Worth Water Department History (
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Freese & Nichols: “Treatment Design of North Holly Water Treatment Plant “ (
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A CENTURY IN THE WORKS 100 Years of Progress in Civil and Environmental Engineering Freese and Nichols Consulting Engineers 1894-1994’ “The New System--Fort Worth Water Works” (Search for “Holly”) (
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Fort Worth Flashback: More than century-old pump station valve removed (
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