MWRD: 95th Street Pumping Station

(3D Satellite)

MWRD posted on Feb 11, 2023
A view to the northeast showing construction of the 95th Street Pumping Station on April 29, 1924.

MWRD posted on Apr 7, 2022
Construction of the 95th Street Pumping Station located on Baltimore Avenue just south of 95th Street in Chicago, Illinois, on May 15, 1924.

 

MWRD posted on Mar 17, 2023
Construction of the 95th Street Pumping station located on Baltimore Avenue just south of 95th Street in Chicago on May 15, 1924. The pumping station went into service in 1925.

 

MWRD posted
Construction of the 95th Street Pumping Station located on Baltimore Avenue just south of 95th Street in Chicago on May 26, 1924.

MWRD posted
Construction of the MWRD’s 95th Street Pumping Station, viewed to the northeast from atop a gas tank on Baltimore Avenue just south of 95th Street in Chicago on June 5, 1924. The pumping station went into service in 1925.

 

MWRD posted
Construction of the MWRD’s 95th Street pumping station, viewed to the east from atop a gas tank on Baltimore Avenue just south of 95th Street in Chicago on June 5, 1924.
Dennis DeBruler: In the background are the blast furnaces of Iroquois Steel, and in the right background is the B&O Bridge before it was hit.

MWRD posted
Construction of the 95th Street pumping station located on Baltimore Avenue just south of 95th Street in Chicago on June 16, 1924.

MWRD posted on Aug 10, 2022
Construction of the 95th Street pumping station located on Baltimore Avenue just south of 95th Street in Chicago on April 29, 1924.

MWRD posted
Historical photo of the week: Construction of the MWRD’s 95th Street Pumping station viewed to the east from atop a gas tank on Baltimore Ave just south of 95th Street in Chicago on June 5, 1924. The pumping station went into service in 1925.
Bob Lalich The blast furnaces in the background were Iroquois Iron's furnace plant south of 95th St. Iroquois built a bigger furnace plant at the mouth of the Calumet River around 1912 and once completed, abandoned the plant seen here.

MWRD posted
Dennis DeBruler: In the background was the B&O bascule bridge on the right and the two blast furnaces and blower house of the original location of the Iroquois Steel Company.

Street View

Street View
Marcin Margler It looks new on the front because I was the project engineer with FH Paschen a while back. We put in a conveyor system to screed out the tampons, condoms, etc. Definitely a cool project to work on then and now.

 

MWRD posted
Sewer connection work in the South Chicago neighborhood at 95th Street and Baltimore Avenue, viewed looking east, on August 25, 1925, with the MWRD's old 95th Street Pumping Station at the right.

MWRD posted
Historical photo of the week: The main pump room inside the (at the time) recently completed 95th Street Pumping station located on Baltimore Ave just south of 95th Street in #Chicago on March 11, 1925. The pumping station went into service in 1925. #TBT
Marty Gatton shared
MWRD posted
Randy Ranes: They have a nice high point vent system for priming
MWRD posted on May 13, 2023

Tony Margis commented on Marty's share
Chicago_Tribune_Sat__Jan_10__1925_

So this station pumped sewage, not water supply.

MWRD posted
Masons build a headhouse for the Calumet intercepting sewer system on June 13, 1923. An eastward view of the interior of the structure is shown. This location is on the west bank of the Calumet River, near where the Chicago Skyway currently crosses the river. The vertical lift bridges in the background are still there today. The headhouse is no longer there but it was used for maintenance of the siphon that moves sewer flow under the Calumet River for the intercepting sewer which leads to the 95th Street Pumping Station.

MWRD posted
Sewer construction at the 95th Street Pumping Station located on Baltimore Avenue just south of 95th Street in Chicago, Illinois, on June 5, 1924. The pumping station went into service in 1925. 

MWRD posted
Sewer construction at the 95th Street Pumping Station located on Baltimore Avenue just south of 95th Street in Chicago on June 5, 1924. The pumping station went into service in 1925.

MWRD posted
Construction of the 95th Street Pumping Station located on Baltimore Avenue just south of 95th Street in Chicago on June 16, 1924.

MWRD posted
Construction of the 95th Street Pumping Station located on Baltimore Avenue just south of 95th Street in Chicago on April 29, 1924. The pumping station went into service in 1925.
Marty Gatton shared

MWRD posted on Feb 25, 2023
Interior view of the 95th Street pumping station September 16, 1926.

MWRD posted on July 11, 2023
A pump with the casing removed inside of the newly built 95th Street Pumping Station on Baltimore Avenue just south of 95th Street in Chicago on July 23, 1925.

MWRD posted
A train on elevated tracks for delivering coal to the 95th Street Pumping station in Chicago on April 1, 1921. The MWRD built a newer pumping station to the south of this location on Baltimore Avenue in 1925. 
Hank Toppett: The station in 49th & Western had a similar set up except the track bed was on concrete with sloped sides. The coal fell out of bottom of cars. I believe it's still there.
[This station was water supply instead of water (waste and storm) removal, but the need for coal was the same.]
Dennis DeBruler shared
I still have a hard time imagining how important railroads and coal were in the 19th Century.

 

Dennis DeBruler commented on his share
This trestle probably explains this overpass to nowhere: https://maps.app.goo.gl/EYCxxjE7gb1JAzSo7. The building under the tollway is the current pumping station.
Dale Windhorst: Dennis DeBruler that was a Pennsylvania RR branch that went down to the industries that were along the river all the way to 104th st. They called it the “bull hole”. No idea why.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Dale's comment
So the bridges to the north for that spur have been removed, 1938 photo:
 https://clearinghouse.isgs.illinois.edu/.../0bwq05067.jpg

MWRD posted
A view from nearby railroad tracks showing the site for sewer connection work at the intersection of 95th Street and Baltimore Avenue in Chicago on September 8, 1925.
Dennis DeBruler: I wondered when crawler cranes started replacing the use of derricks. This photo gives me an interesting data point concerning the history of crawler cranes.
[old crawler crane]