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4- Nro Fam 164W4 (W United States Department of the Interior • National Park Service is • National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number . , _ _ Page North Pumping Station NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION OW AWOW ft 1024mIS St. Joseph County IN - The North Pumping Station, designed by prominent local architects Freyermuth and Maurer, is a fine Classical Revival building sheathing a purely functional interior that offers a surprising array of decorative elements as well.. It sits nestled just within the riverside glades of Leeper Park. alongside -the busy thoroughfare of North Michigan Street. A red tile hipped roof with decorative copper flashing tops the symmetrical rectangular brick building (photos 1, 2). On the south end of the east elevation is a gabled dormer with an oriel window trimmed with limestone (see photo 3). The building rests on a limestone foundation and features a projecting center pavilion (photo 2) fronted on the west with a pedimented colonnade (of four limestone Ionic columns) beneath which is a mosaic tile floor. On the pediment is carved NORTH PUMPING STATION. A small copper dome flanked with decorative limestone globes tops each side of the entrance pavilion; set into the walls beneath are rectangular limestone tablets topped with.wreathed cartouches. Carved into the tablets are the names of the various city officials and departments involved with the erection of this building. The recessed entrance is comprised of three limestone—trimmed, round— arched bays: the center bay contains a modern steel security door. The original arched window openings in the entrance and much of the rest of the building have been partially or completely filled in with panels andthe windows replaced with rectangular metal sashes. The windows on the south (see photo 3), however, are original and completely intact. the top portion filled with brick in decorative patterns. The interior features a pressed metal cove ceiling (photo 4). Stairs connecting the various levels boast decorative balusters of iron with brass handrails and knobs (see photo 5). Although the original steam pumping engines have been removed, huge iron pipes fill much of the lower space on the north (photo 5). The south part of the interior descends yet another story and contains storage tanks. Within this vast open space a small climate—controlled box has been constructed to house offices. It sits just within the main entrance and above the deepest part of the interior. Behind the building sits.a plain round brick structure: an older cistern dating to the original pumping station of the 1890s.