McNeill Street Pumping Station Pres. Soc.

The Shreveport Water Works Museum at the McNeill Street Pumping Station is a very unusual holdover from the age of steam that was the city's first water purification plant when it was finished in 1887. The plant was an early adopter as water treatment technology evolved hrough the years and the steam powered pumps and other equipment continued to be used to provide water to the city until it was finally retired in 1980. At that time, the Smithsonian Museum believed it to be the last operating steam powered municipal water works in America. The site remains as a very rare intact example of a water works from another era that is a National Historic Landmark and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. The old water works still stands on the high ground overlooking the city it so faithfully served for so long as a tangible link to past generations of Shreveporters who lived there and depended on the clean water that enabled the city to grow and prosper. The Preservation Society is committed to raising the money needed to maintain the site and keep the Shreveport Water Works open to the public so visitors can come and see this historic marvel from another age and learn how the clean water we depend on is produced and delivered to our faucets.