Water & Dams
Well Well: Smithsonian Construction Discovers 1840s-Era Water Supply Infrastructure
A“lost” 19th Century drainage cistern was uncovered alongside the National Mall in Washington, D.C. during enabling utility work.
Photo courtesy National Parks Service
As the nation’s repository of history, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, is full of surprises, especially when construction is involved.
While performing enabling utility work in August as part of a multi-year revitalization of the historic Castle building, workers from Biscayne Contractors uncovered a “lost” 19th Century drainage cistern beneath Jefferson Drive, alongside the National Mall. Covered and sealed for more than 120 years, the 9-ft-diameter, 30-ft-deep brick-lined chamber was part of a self-sufficient water and wastewater system of cisterns, wells and cesspools constructed along with the original building in 1847.
“This was a case of lost institutional knowledge,” explains Carly Bond, the Smithsonian’s associate director for architectural history and historic preservation, adding that the cistern’s discovery spurred some archival research into the Smithsonian’s infrastructure history.
The National Mall of the 1840s was far different from today’s museum-lined, tourist-filled expanse. In those days, Bond says, the undeveloped, undulating land was used for grazing, dumping and various agricultural purposes.
“There were no other buildings on the Mall at this time, other than greenhouses at the far east end and plans for the Washington Monument at its west end,” she adds.
Workers from Biscayne Contractors discovered the drainage cistern beneath Jefferson Drive. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian. Bond says water for the three cisterns likely came from the building’s gutters and roof cistern overflow. In 1857, the two northern cisterns were uncovered and fitted with brick domed vault due to their locations in the historic carriage path, now Jefferson Drive. Reburied, the cisterns continued to provide water to Castle until at least 1865, when the building was connected to Washington, D.C.’s municipal water system.
The buried cisterns lay forgotten for nearly a century until 1974, when the south chamber was uncovered during a different project and left in place. But it wasn’t until Alexandria, Va.-based Biscayne Contractors began digging into Jefferson Drive to relocate basement-level telecommunications and steam systems in advance of the revitalization project that one of the north cisterns was rediscovered. The chamber was dry and contained no artifacts, Bond says.
Perhaps appropriate to the fleeting nature of fame in contemporary culture, the newfound cistern’s literal and figurative time in the sun will be brief. Echoing the concerns of their 1850s forebears, Bond says, “our structural engineers have advised that it isn’t safe for such a large void to remain under the Jefferson Drive roadbed, due to concern of collapse.”
Although the cistern will be filled, this time it won’t be forgotten. Along with conducting Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) documentation on the chamber, the Smithsonian will use ground-penetrating radar scanning to locate the third cistern. The Smithsonian also plans a public exhibit on the south cistern, which is located in a public garden space.
Meanwhile, full construction on the five-year revitalization program on the Castle and adjacent 1881 Arts and Industries Building is set to start this fall. The project will overhaul both buildings’ mechanical, electrical, plumbing, telecommunications, security and life safety systems; add a new central utility plant; replace windows; and improve the appearance and efficiency of both public and staff spaces. A new consolidated loading facility will improve the efficiency and safety of materials handling in the Smithsonian’s South Mall Campus.
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