Boulware Springs Waterworks

History

Architecturally significant as an example of early 20th-century industrial design, the Boulware Springs Waterworks offers a unique, aesthetically pleasing intersection of technology and ecology. Built between 1891 and 1908, the plant was Gainesville’s inaugural water utility until 1913, continuing to serve as an auxiliary supply until 1977.

Archaeological reports indicate the site was heavily utilized during prehistoric occupations, and its prominence carried into local political history. It hosted the 1853 assembly that designated Gainesville as the county seat. Later, in 1905, the city’s promise of free water from Boulware Springs became the deciding factor in securing the relocation of the University of Florida from Lake City.

Early History

In 1853, a festive picnic at Boulware Springs turned into a historic showdown. The gathering was held to elect a new county seat for Alachua County, sparking a heated debate between the long-established town of Newnansville and proponents of a new, unnamed site positioned closer to the recently chartered Cross State Railroad. Ultimately, the railroad faction won out, and the newly chosen location was named Gainesville.

Establishment of Boulware Springs

As the town grew, so did its water problems. Early residents relied on shallow wells and surface streams, including a central city well in front of the courthouse that was notoriously rumored to be primed with water from dirty horse troughs. By the 1890s, a public push for a cleaner, healthier water supply reached a tipping point. Despite fierce political opposition, the city council narrowly approved a $50,000 bond issue for a new utility. Consequently, in 1891, the City of Gainesville purchased the 30-acre Boulware Springs tract for $2,500 from the Jackson family, who had acquired the land after the Civil War from the Boulwares, a prominent pre-war plantation family.

By 1892, the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Gainesville officially noted that the town’s new “Water Works” was under construction. Just two years later, the Gainesville Weekly Sun reported on the city council’s plans to fully staff the facility and subject it to a rigorous 30-day pressure test.

The original 1894 structure was a split-level, brick building configured in an “L” or “T” shape, featuring a gable roof on its eastern wing and a hip roof to the west. Towering over the site was a tall, round smokestack, which historic 1902 photographs suggest was made of metal, positioned right next to a distinct, “D”-shaped holding pond. Inside, the massive water pumps were entirely steam-driven. This required a constant supply of firewood for the boilers, a fact preserved in historical records through the grievances of a Mr. Jackson, who filed charges against the City for failing to pay for the wood he had delivered.

In 1897, the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map for Gainesville described the city’s waterworks: “One 6,000 gallon and one 100,000 gallon reservoir held in reserve. Source of supply: never failing springs of a capacity estimated at one million gallons per 24 hours. Laidlow and Dunn pump at pumping station, about 2 miles from town. One duplex and one straight acting pump, combined capacity about 20,000 gallons per hour. Supplied through an 8″ main. Capacity and force of spring sufficient to replace water faster than it can be pumped out. Pumping station connected by telephone with uptown office. Fire pressure 851bs. Domestic pressure 30 Ib to the sq in.“

By 1898, Gainesville’s community pride and ambitious growth plans were on full display in a special supplement published by the Daily Sun titled “Florida, Alachua County, Its Resources and Advantages. Gainesville, A Healthful, Progressive City.” The publication’s glowing description of the Boulware Springs Waterworks perfectly captures this forward-thinking era:

“The Water Works Plant is one of the finest and most complete in the State. It is the property of the city, was constructed at a cost of $60,000, for the payment of which there was issued 6 percent bonds. This constitutes the only indebtedness of the city. The supply of water is pumped from the renowned Boulware Springs, and is as pure chemically as any in the United States, and its purity has gained for Gainesville an enviable reputation.”

Water Scarcity and Expansions

By 1905, Gainesville’s rapid expansion began to strain its water supply, raising serious concerns about whether Boulware Springs could keep up with demand. To boost capacity, Alderman Benson personally oversaw efforts to tap into additional spring flows and drilled a new artesian well on the adjacent hillside. This surge in production likely prompted the replacement of the original pumphouse with a much larger, two-story facility to accommodate the new equipment.

Local leadership was confident these upgrades would solve the city’s recent shortages, an optimism clearly reflected in this excerpt from The Sun, dated August 21, 1905: “While the product of Boulware Spring has always shown by analysis to be second to none in the South, and inferior only to the famous Poland springs water of Maine, there has been in the dry times an alarming scarcity, but this scarcity may not be avoided, and the city will be blessed with as pure water as can be found in the world.”

Gainesville’s upgraded water capacity was short-lived, due in part to the rapid growth that followed the University of Florida’s 1905 move from Lake City, as the City had promised the university free water for life from Boulware Springs. In 1908, the city council directed Water Committee Chairman Edmerson Everett Cannon to oversee the drilling of more wells. The physical expansion required for these new utility operations likely drove the construction of the boiler room’s southern addition in 1908. This upgrade once again instilled confidence in the public, with the Gainesville Daily Sun writing: “There is no reason why the city should be short of water in the future,” with the completion of a 194-foot deep well in October 1907.

Decline and Decommissioning

As Gainesville continued to boom in the early 20th century, the city’s demands finally outpaced the capacity of both the waterworks and Boulware Springs themselves. Recognizing the need for a modernization overhaul, the City decided in 1911 to construct a centralized, combined waterworks and electric generation plant closer to downtown, completing the project in 1913. Sometime between 1908 and 1922, the original Boulware facility was retrofitted with electrical pumps. However, this upgrade brought its own challenges, as frequent power line outages plagued the station well into the early 1960s. Nevertheless, Boulware Springs continued to serve a functional role in the city’s utility system, supplying boiler water to the Kelly Power Plant until 1977.

Today, the historic pumphouse sits silent, vandalized, and abandoned, awaiting a long-promised restoration that has yet to materialize. Meanwhile, a fascinating relic of the site’s history lives on: the University of Florida still does not pay for water, a century-old perk that remains active long after Boulware Springs stopped supplying the city’s water.

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