ALBION WATER WORKS - Historical Albion Michigan

In a time when there has been alot of gloomy news locally, here’s something positive that we can take note of: have you noticed how much better Albion’s water quality has been in recent months? You can actually see through to the other side of the glass now. No more passing our water off as looking like cider. This of course is due to our new water pumping and treatment station which opened in 2001 on 26½ Mile Road northwest of Albion. The better water quality in our plumbing has been especially beneficial to laundry, humidifiers, and probably cooking also.

Albion has been blessed with numerous artesian wells in our area, which supplied water to our residents in the 19th century. A community water system was installed beginning in 1885, upon passage of a $50,000 bond issue. The pumping station was located along E. Cass St. in the building which was well-known in the 1970s through early 1990s as the Albion Recycling Center. A circular pumping house once stood in front of the building. A water stand-pipe was erected on the highest elevation point in town, Crowell Park, in order to provide water pressure to the system. Even back then, pollution was a problem and so officials realized they had to move the source of our water supply.

Construction of a new pumping station began on N. Albion Street in October, 1915, with completion in 1916. Steam-powered water pumps were installed, which supplied Albion’s water for many years. An Albion City water works headquarters was later constructed in front along N. Albion St. This pumping station was replaced after World War II by the water pumping station on Brownswood Road down the road (closed in 1988), and by one at Ketchum Field on the east side of town. The N. Albion St. Water Works building sat unused for many years, but in 1974 was converted into an equipment storage facility. The building was demolished in 1999.

From our Historical Notebook this week we present a photograph of the Albion Water Works as it looked shortly after it was erected. Notice the long smokestack in the rear. How many of our readers remember this building?

	Frank Passic — Albion Historian An Albion native and 1971 graduate of Albion High School, Frank Passic has been researching and writing Albion history since 1976. He is the creator of the Albion Historical Notebook, with hundreds of articles appearing weekly in the Morning Star and The Recorder. Frank maintains an extensive personal archive including Riverside Cemetery records, family surname files, genealogies, photographs, city directories, and high school yearbooks. Support his 2026 research at the Historic Albion Michigan Facebook page. Historical Notebook \| From the Archives \| Subject List \| 100 Years Ago \| Alphabetical Index \| Frank Passic Home Page \| Albion History Books \| Contact Frank
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	Robin James — Indices Unlimited Robin James is the editor of the Albion Historical Notebook and has kept Frank Passic's thousands of articles organized and searchable for decades. A trained librarian and archivist, Robin specializes in back-of-book and online indexing, multimedia collection management, and corporate information distribution. He also enjoys strange music and is a contributing editor for Igloo electronic music magazine. For more about his indexing services, visit Indices Unlimited.
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