A Tower of Power
By Alison Mayes | Published in Winnipeg Free Press
Summary: This Winnipeg Free Press newspaper article by Alison Mayes highlights the Taché Booster Pumping Station, a historic 1918 brick surge tank in St. Boniface. Built by contractor Thomas Kelly and Sons, the unique architectural structure remains a functioning part of Winnipeg’s city water system.
A Tower of Power
A few months ago, Katherine Devine, George Andrich and their dog got slightly off-course while driving to Whittier Park in St. Boniface.
Heading north on Taché Avenue, just before it dead-ends at the Red River, they were struck by the sight of a large brick cylinder on the east side, near the corner of Rue Messager.
“We both went, ‘Hey, that’s amazing!’ We stopped and got out of the car and looked at it,” recalls Devine, a lover of heritage architecture who owns a market research firm, Kisquared, in the Exchange District.
The couple wondered whether the apparent water tower, owned by the city and secured behind a chain-link fence, was still in use, or might be in danger of demolition.
Though obviously built for a utilitarian purpose, the tower’s attractive variety of warm brick colours—from cream to rust to dark brown—and lovely, decorative patterns of arches and diamonds give it a peaceful, pleasing effect. In fact, it looks like something you’d have a picnic beside.
“It’s such a beautiful structure,” says Devine, 41, who now drives by it deliberately on dog-walking trips to the park. “I have an emotional and spiritual reaction to it.”
The tower is a surge tank constructed in 1918, before the city’s original aqueduct started bringing water from Shoal Lake in 1919.
Although it has no heritage designation, the city maintains an architectural file on it, and on the low rectangular brick building with glass-block windows on the site, built in 1949. Together they’re known as the Taché Booster Pumping Station.
The tank is 44 feet in diameter and sits on a 12-foot stone base that is covered in vines. Its height is about 42 feet, says Shelley Bruce of the city’s Heritage Buildings Unit.
It was built by local contractors Thomas Kelly and Sons, who also erected warehouses in the Exchange District.
Kelly earned a scandalous place in the history books, notes Bruce, when it was discovered that he overbilled for construction of the Legislative Building. His gross misuse of government funds came to light in 1915. He went to trial in 1916, was found guilty of an estimated theft of $1.2 million, and sentenced to 2 1/2 years in Stony Mountain Penitentiary.
“This (water tank) must have been built by his company just as he was leaving Stony Mountain, perhaps,” says Bruce.
Far from being a relic of the past, the 1918 tank is a functioning part of the city water system, says Diane Sacher, manager of water services.
The pumping station “increases the flow to our in-town reservoir during periods when water demand is high in Winnipeg—in the summer. The tower (tank) is to protect the aqueduct against pressure surges. When the pumping station is in use, there may be water in the tower.
“It’s one of a kind… That’s the only booster pumping station in the city.”
Sacher says it’s possible the city could one day replace the tank with an underground pressure-release chamber, but there are no plans to do so.
Devine thinks more people should discover the charms of this hidden architectural gem.
“It’s one of those pieces of old Winnipeg. It should be listed on tourism stuff as a find.”
📜 Historical Archive Document
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