Mystic Waterworks

The Somerville Housing Authority (SHA), committed to creating affordable housing for senior and disabled residents, seized on a unique opportunity to adapt the former and long vacant Mystic River Pump Station. The rehabilitation transformed the 24,000-square-foot property into 25 affordable housing units for elderly and nonelderly disabled families. Ryan’s Historic Tax Credits team consulted on $5 million in federal and state historic tax credits that helped to fund the large-scale rehabilitation.

The Romanesque Revival style Mystic River Pump Station was Somerville’s first water supply. Construction of the load-bearing masonry building began in 1862 after the city of Charlestown constructed a dam at Mystic Lake. By 1864, the station was in service and pumped water for the storage reservoir to a network of distribution pipes. It had two steam-powered engines that could move up to 13 million gallons of water per day. In 1870 and 1895, the station expanded with two wings to house two additional steam engines. The expansions reflect the station’s growing service coverage; the city of Charlestown was annexed by the city of Boston in 1874. In 1898, Somerville’s water supply was unified with Boston’s under the Metropolitan Water Board.