McNeill Street Pumping Station
The McNeill Street Pumping Station, located near downtown Shreveport on the banks of Cross Bayou, is Shreveport's original waterworks. The first water plant facilities, including steam-driven pumps, were installed on the site in 1887 as part of the construction of Shreveport's first municipal water system, which was only the second such municipal system in the entire state. Portions of that original installation, along with major additions from the 1899-1921 time frame, continued to operate until 1994, although the steam pumps were finally retired in 1980.
The McNeill plant is typical of waterworks from the turn of the last century that were once common throughout the United States, but which have long since disappeared from the landscape. Through a combination of circumstances, McNeill not only survived intact beyond its era, but actually remained in operation using antique steam-powered machinery dating from the late 1800's and early 1900's. These exceedingly rare examples of bygone technology can not only be found at McNeill, but are still intact in their original historic location and are in an operable configuration thanks to meticulous maintenance by water department personnel before final retirement in 1980.
Robert Vogel, former Curator of Heavy Machinery and Civil Engineering at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of History and Technology, visited McNeill in 1980 and commented at that time that two of the Worthington pumps there may be the sole survivors of their types.
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