DURHAM WATER WORKS / RESERVOIR

1405

Durham

1917

Under construction, 1917

W. M. Piatt and Company, (whose principal, William Piatt, I've referenced as the mid-20th century owner of Lochmoor) constructed the plant. Piatt had come to Winston-Salem from Pennsylvania before establishing his engineering firm in Durham in 1910.

Durham Water Works, early 1920s.
(Courtesy Durham County Library - North Carolina Collection)

The original filtration plant is a three-story brick Romanesque Revival style building with a one-story wing. The valve house with its miniature tiled roof and elaborate windows was built in the ~center of the reservoir.

The West Durham trolley line of the Durham Traction Co., which had been extended up Broad Street to Watts Hospital after its construction in 1907, was extended westward on Club Boulevard in 1912. Construction began on the large reservoir and water treatment plant immediately across Hillandale Road, which proffered an impressive vista to club visitors sitting on the terrace, as well as boating opportunities to other visitors. In this way, Durham Traction company worked with other interests to create a trolley terminus destination for recreational users, much as they had with the East Durham ballpark, and much as they would with Lakewood Park

Beatrice & Graham Maynard, "Romance Nuts," boating on the Durham reservoir with the clubhouse in the background.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

The plant expanded in 1927 with a two-story brick wing to the west of the original structure, built to receive the underground aqueducts coming from the new city reservoir at Lake Michie, a reservoir and dam system that was also designed by W. M. Piatt & Company, as well as an expanded filtration system.

Construction of the west wing, 1926.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Construction, 1926.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

William Piatt atop the completed structure, 1927.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

By the late 1920s, the transportation dynamics of Durham had changed dramatically with rapid adoption of the automobile in the mid 1920s. The trolley line on Club Boulevard was discontinued in 1930. Presumably, boating on the reservoir was discontinued during this period as well.

Below, Hillsborough Road in 1947, I believe at the Hillandale intersection, with footage of the reservoir. (Courtesy Ronald Bryant, digitized by Phillip Barron ):

The building was doubled in size with a stuccoed Art Moderne addition to the western end of the previous wing in 1949-50.

Construction of the 1949-50 addition
(Courtesy Barry Norman)

Construction of the 1949-50 addition
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

Completed 1949-50 addition
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

Aerial of the water treatment plant and reservoir, 1950s
(Courtesy Durham County Library / North Carolina Collection)

The original buildings of the plant underwent some less-than-historically-optimal renovations during the 1960s-1990s period, and by 1990s, the city contemplated taking these buildings down for a new facility. However, kudos goes to them for deciding to restore the original buildings. The windows and original brick of the treatment plant were completed renovated and restored, for which the city won a preservation award from Preservation Durham. The Williams Treatment Plant, as it is now known, continues to be operational today.

1917, 1927, and 1950 portions of the treatment plant, 04.04.09 (G. Kueber)