Mesa Water Boosting Station
El Paso, El Paso County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1903, Charles R. Morehead won the El Paso mayoral race on a platform that promised an acceptable water system for the city. Later that year, the International Water Company (IWC) began construction of a water works on the mesa north of Fort Bliss to tap into the Hueco Bolson Aquifer. Around 1904, IWC replaced the compressor with a new pump plant. This new Mesa Pump Plant drew water from the mesa wells that was then stored in a one-million-gallon, in-ground tank. However, in order to meet demand, IWC pumped water at a rate that exceeded replenishment. The City of El Paso purchased the IWC in 1909 for $927,000, but even under municipal ownership, the pump plant could not meet the demand for water. By the late 1930s, the city had both expanded the municipal water system and revamped existing facilities in order to meet constantly increasing demand. By 1937, the city had both a low-service district system for elevations below 3,850 feet and a high-service district system for elevations above 3,850 feet; the Mesa Pump Plant was included in the high-service system. The City of El Paso Department of Water and Sewage built the Mesa Water Boosting Station in 1938 to replace the aging Mesa Pump Plant. City water department superintendent Ashley Green Classen drew the plans for the facility, which included several tanks, reservoirs, settling basins and other buildings and structures. The boosting station remains the only historic municipal structure in El Paso built in the Pueblo Deco style. The reinforced concrete, one-story, rectangular plan facility features prominent buttresses, stylized tile designs, large casement windows and stucco finishes. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2009
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Water was the promise that won Charles Morehead the El Paso mayoralty in 1903, and that year the International Water Company began tapping the Hueco Bolson Aquifer from wells on the mesa north of Fort Bliss. Demand outran the aquifer's recharge, and even after the city bought the works in 1909 the pumps struggled to keep up. In 1938 the city replaced the aging plant with the Mesa Water Boosting Station, built in a striking Pueblo Deco style that makes it the only historic municipal building of its kind in El Paso.
Why it matters
The station embodies the defining challenge of Western cities — securing enough water to grow in the desert — and preserves a rare, regionally distinctive expression of civic architecture.
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Related people
- · Charles R. Morehead
- · Ashley Green Classen
Themes & tags
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