Water Works Channel

Water Works Channel. . San Antonio's First Water Company, established by French immigrant Jean B. LaCoste, began operation in 1878. The system consisted of a raceway and pump house about a mile north of this site and included turbines and piping that sent water to a hilltop reservoir near Fort Sam Houston. Water then flowed by gravity down to the city below. The company experienced financial problems and was purchased by its largest creditor, George W. Brackenridge, in 1883. Brackenridge expanded the system by building a long canal and a second pump house to increase the flow of water to the original reservoir and to a new one that he built at the same site. When artesian wells replaced the river as the city's water source in the 1890s, the canals and pump houses were abandoned. A shallow depression at this site marks the location of the canal leading to the second pump house, known today as the Borglum Studio., Captions , Upper Middle: This map illustrates the Brackenridge canal, pump house, and piping that delivered water from the San Antonio River to the reservoirs north of Fort Sam Houston. , Courtesy: San Antonio Municipal Archives, Office of the City Cleck. , Lower Middle: George Brackenridge expanded the water supply system to serve the growing population. This pump house, later used as a studio by sculptor Gutzon Borglum, was completed in 1885. , Courtesy: Hearst Corporation. , Upper Right: The rectangular stone-lined reservoir constructed by Jean B. LaCoste is now located within the San Antonio Botanical Gardens and is used as an amphitheater. , Photo: Maria Watson Pfeiffer, San Antonio. , Lower Right: This canal (above) delivered water from the San Antonio River to the lower pump house in the late 1800s. It was later incorporated into the Brackenridge Park Golf Course. National Youth Administration workers built this small bridge (upper right) over the canal in 1939. , Courtesy: University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections. , Photo: David Haynes, San Antonio.