Waterworks and the Pump House

The challenge of maintaining a landscape subject to regular burials and service traffic led to the construction of an upgraded irrigation system and central Pump House at the Water Works lot. The lot was situated on a triangular parcel bounded by Mission Road to the west, and the tracks of the Southern Pacific Railroad to the east. City directories and business directories published between 1910 and 1923 show that the Water Works lot served an additional purpose as a location for manufacturers of monuments including MT Carroll and Sons Co and Carroll Brothers. A 1913 survey map of the Water Works lot included an office building listed as 'Carrots,' a stone shed presumably used for storing monument materials, and an accessory building containing a polisher, compressed air tank, and saw shop.

These buildings relating to Carroll's operations were retained in some cases after each company shifted their operations and listed business addresses "opposite Holy Cross Cemetery" by 1918.

Both companies remained prominent producers of granite and marble monuments in Colma with business offices in San Francisco.

The Pump House was initially built as a rectilinear building oriented with the Southern Pacific Railroad to its east, rather than Mission Road to its west. By February 1914, plans for a fifteen-foot deep, reinforced-concrete reservoir to hold 111,000 gallons of water to be pumped through the Pump House and uphill to the cemetery were established.

A 1917 photograph showing the Pump House building from a south-facing perspective along Mission Road serves as the earliest known photographic evidence of the building. As the photograph shows, the Pump House was located directly adjacent to streetcar tracks on the east side of Mission Road and was situated opposite several businesses across Mission Road.

The transition of the Water Works lot to a complex irrigation plant was completed by August 1923, when civil engineer John Pope published an updated survey. Changes included a more detailed rendering of the Pump House building that Included the building's faceted south bay, buttresses, and a switch board located at the eastern end of the building.

Below-ground pipes connected to pumps and wells within the building and throughout the site, and extended to an accessory well building and the water reservoir to the northeast of the Pump House. To the north of the reservoir were a carpenter shop, travelling crane, stone yard building, polishing house, and office with showroom.

The construction of Holy Cross Cemetery's irrigation-related buildings and structures coincided with the Issuance of San Francisco's, Bill 2853, Ordinance 2597 on January 14, 1914. Following ordinance-driven reinterments and regular burials between the mid-1920s and early 1940s, Holy Cross Cemetery remained a preeminent cemetery within Colma In the 1970s, Holy Cross Cemetery constructed a new pump house building at a separate location within the cemetery and began to lease the historic Pump House to tenants who outfitted the building for use as a machine shop and for automotive maintenance purposes. Colma cemeteries with complex landscapes relied heavily on high-quality irrigation systems in managing and maintaining the appearance of their grounds.

(Timeline, as continued from the two neighboring markers)

1917 Pump House fully completed , 1924 The establishment of the Associated Cemeteries Association was a direct influence on incorporation of the City of Lawndale , 1941 The name Lawndale was changed back to Colma which has been used since , 1949 Rail service direct to cemeteries along Mission Road discontinued ,