The Albany Pump Station, originally the Quackenbush Pumping Station of the Albany Water Works, is located in Quackenbush Square on Broadway in the city of Albany, New York, United States. It is a large brick building constructed in the 1870s and expanded later in the century. It was built to pump municipal water from the nearby

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

, and continued in that use for 60 years. In 1983 it was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. Today it has been partly converted into a popular local restaurant and

brewpub Craft beer is a beer that has been made by craft breweries. They produce smaller amounts of beer, typically less than large breweries, and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as having an emphasis ...

, a reuse that drew an award from the Preservation League of New York State. The beers have also received awards at the

World Beer Cup The World Beer Cup is an international beer competition organized by the Brewers Association, a trade group A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organizat ...

and at the Great American Beer Festival. Another area of the building serves as the city of Albany's

visitor center A visitor center or centre (see American and British English spelling differences), visitor information center, tourist information center, is a physical location that provides tourist information to visitors. Types of visitor center A visi ...

Building

The pumphouse building complex is part of Quackenbush Square, a small

pedestrian mall Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town reserved for pedestrian-only use and in whi ...

area named for the nearby

Quackenbush House Quackenbush House is a historic building in Albany, New York. It is a house with a double-pitched gable roof that was built in about 1736. an''Accompanying five photos, exterior and interior, from c. 1886, c. 1920, 1969, and undated''/ref> It was ...

, one of the oldest buildings in Albany. It is located just off Broadway, on the east side of the street just north of, and visible from, the offramp that carries northbound traffic on

US 9 U.S. Route 9 (US 9) is a north–south United States highway in the states of Delaware, New Jersey, and New York in the Northeastern United States. It is one of only two U.S. Highways with a ferry connection (the Cape May–Lewes Ferry, betwe ...

from the Dunn Memorial Bridge and

Interstate 787 Interstate 787 (I-787) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in the US state of New York. I-787 is the main highway for those traveling into and out of downtown Albany. The southern terminus is, per New York traffic data, at the toll plaza ...

to Clinton Avenue in the city. Its main block is a two-story four-by-four- bay brick building with a

hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

shingled in slate. Large elliptically-arched windows, doubled on the second story, fill the west (front) facade. They are trimmed with brick lintels, keystones and stone sills, separated by broad

pilaster In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...

s. A large red sign saying "Albany Pump Station" is at the top of the facade, with "Brewpub and Restaurant" in smaller letters beneath. A later northern extension is similar. To the south is a two-story brick building used as stables when originally constructed, with rounded windows in that section. A narrow extension protrudes from the north. Inside, little remains of the original use or equipment. Renovations to create the restaurant, on the east side of the building, retained its industrial character but opened the interior space to create ceilings. Two 20-ton (18-tonne) cranes were retained and used to hoist the brewery's serving tanks to their current location. The Albany Heritage Area Visitors Center, a

gift shop A gift shop or souvenir shop is a store primarily selling souvenirs, memorabilia, and other items relating to a particular topic or theme. The items sold often include coffee mugs, stuffed animals, toys, t-shirts, postcards, handmade collec ...

and the Henry Hudson Planetarium are located along the south facade, on Quackenbush Square.

History

Pumping station

Albany's

water supply system A water supply network or water supply system is a system of engineered hydrologic and hydraulic components that provide water supply. A water supply system typically includes the following: # A drainage basin (see water purification – sourc ...

had grown from wells at the current site of the state capitol in 1670 to several small

reservoirs A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including control ...

created by damming local creeks by the mid-19th century. The city's explosive growth around the time of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

began to test and strain that network. Eventually the city's water commission decided it could meet present and future demand only by tapping the Hudson directly instead of relying on distant

tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainag ...

. In 1873 it bought land at the corner of Montgomery and Quackenbush streets. Local architect Edward Ogden designed the main block of the current building, and it was built later in the year. It had room for two steam-driven pumps that could move river water to Bleecker Reservoir (now

Bleecker Stadium Bleecker Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Albany, New York. The stadium was once a reservoir for the Albany public water system. Today it has a baseball diamond, football/soccer field, and a softball field used by area high schools, colleg ...

) west of the city. A neighboring house was demolished and a

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centr ...

house built on its site. Five years later, in 1878, it was supplemented by Prospect Hill Reservoir and another pumping station in the west of the city, to serve new neighborhoods growing there. The pump station was expanded in 1895, and again two years later, with the present wings added and another nearby house taken over for office use. Three more pumps were put in service, and the building complex had assumed its current form. The station continued to draw river water for the city for the next three decades. In 1935,

Alcove Reservoir Alcove Reservoir is a reservoir located in Albany County, New York, United States. It serves as water supply for the city of Albany. At in elevation,

was built in the countryside south of the city, and Albany's water needs were finally satisfied for the long term. The station pumped its last water in 1937.

Brewpub and restaurant

The station remained in city hands, and was used by the city's water department primarily as a storage facility after it was taken offline. Four decades after that, in 1977, it was extensively renovated. It continued to be used for storage, and suffered structural neglect and decline. In 1999, a local man named Neil Evans decided to resurrect the brewery his family had run downriver in Hudson, from 1786 to

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol ...

. He started the C.H. Evans Brewing Company and bought the building. When he renovated the space he insisted on retaining its industrial

ambiance Ambient or Ambiance or Ambience may refer to: Music and sound * Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgrounds * Ambient music, a genre of music that puts an emphasis on tone and atmosphere * ''Ambient'' (album), by Moby * ...

. It has become a popular spot due to its location just northeast of downtown. The following year the Preservation League of New York recognized it with an award for Project Excellence. Beer writer Lew Bryson has joined in, praising not only the brews on tap but the building, calling it "a great setting for a brewpub". He compares it to similar establishments in other cities located in former industrial buildings: "They're so solid, and so overengineered, that they seem to be the work of giants." C.H. Evans Brewing Company at the Albany Pump Station's original brewmaster, George de Piro, twice won awards at the

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

Dunkel Dunkel, or Dunkles, is a word used for several types of dark German lager. ''Dunkel'' is the German word meaning ''dark'', and dunkel beers typically range in color from amber to dark reddish brown. They are characterized by their smooth malty f ...

took a silver in 2008 in the European-Style Dark category, and Kick-Ass Brown received a 2004 bronze in the American-Style

Brown Ale Brown ale is a style of beer with a dark amber or brown colour. The term was first used by London brewers in the late 17th century to describe their products, such as mild ale, though the term has a rather different meaning today. 18th century br ...

category. His Kick-Ass Brown also won the Gold Medal in the American-style Brown Ale category at the 2000, 2002 and 2008 Great American Beer Festival.

References

External links

Albany Pump Station
page at ''

Albany Times-Union The ''Times Union'' is an American daily newspaper, serving the Capital Region of New York. Although the newspaper focuses on Albany and its suburbs, it covers all parts of the four-county area, including the cities of Troy Troy ( el, Τ� ...