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Fargo Water Treatment Plant Oral history Collection

 Collection
Identifier: MSS 3079

Scope and Contents

This collection contains five cassette tapes and an index to each oral history with time stamps.

Dates

  • Majority of material found in 1995

Creator

Access

The collection is open under the rules and regulations of the Institute.

Copyrights

Copyrights to this collection is held by the Institute.

Biography

In 1911-1912 the City of Fargo planned and built one of the nation’s earliest municipal water softening and filtration plants to treat water pumped from the Red River of the North. The plant’s genesis was marked by controversy, partly the result of city politics, but also from the rapidly changing technology of drinking water purification. The facility was designed by Fargo City Engineer, Frank L. Anders, in collaboration with C. Arthur Brown and others. The plant probably represented the most important municipal improvement the city had undertaken up to that time. Although the construction came in over budget and was completed somewhat later than planned, the pumps, filters, controls, and mains worked more or less as designed.

The historic Fargo Water Treatment Plant occupied a tract bounded by the Red River, Thirteenth Ave. South, Fifth Street South, and Fourteenth Avenue South. Originally built in rural surroundings on the outskirts of town, by the late twentieth century it became part of an extensive residential neighborhood. The facility resembled a picturesque park with its massive, tile-roofed buildings and manicured lawn dotted with shade trees. The plant was a complex of buildings and structures, the most prominent of which was the Filter House and the Pump House. The main buildings were well-disciplined examples of City Beautiful Classicism.

Over the years the plant saw other buildings added to meet the needs of the city of Fargo and its growing population. In 1972 the plant was modernized and increased its capacity from twelve million gallons a day to thirty-seven gallons a day. In 1992 Fargo proposed to construct a new water treatment plant with a capability in excess of thirty million gallons per day, at a site adjacent to the old plant complex. The project was approved and received partial federal funding. The new plant was completed in 1997 and the old plant buildings were demolished in 1998. (Excerpts from Historic Documentation of the Fargo Water Treatment Plant, Fargo, North Dakota)

Extent

0.25 Linear Feet (Oral histories of people who worked at the water treatment facility.)

Language of Materials

English

Overview

This collection contains five cassette tapes and an index to each oral history with time stamps.

Provenance

Donated by Bear Crush Archelogy, Inc. on October 9, 1995 (Acc. 2422).

Property Rights

The Institute for Regional Studies owns the property rights to this collection.
Title
Finding Aid to the Fargo Water Treatment Plant Oral History Collection
Description rules
Appm
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Institute for Regional Studies Repository

Contact:
West Building N
3551 7th Avenue North
Fargo North Dakota 58102 United States