The Pump House in Byrd Park (Photo by Jay Paul)
Richmond’s Pump House in Byrd Park may be almost 150 years old, but thanks to continuing restoration efforts over the past six years, it’s slowly returning to grandeur.
In October, Historic Richmond bestowed a Golden Hammer Award on Friends of Pump House. The award, which honors excellence in community revitalization projects, highlights the volunteer organization’s meticulous restoration of the building’s lower windows and doors.
The group, in partnership with Historic Richmond and the city, has been restoring the Gothic Revival-style building’s deteriorating doors and approximately 40 windows, including some original to the 1883 construction.
“When we started, [the windows] were all boarded up, glass was broken out, sashes were there in some cases and not in others, and hardware was in pretty rough shape,” says Penn Markham, president of Friends of Pump House.
Thanks to the volunteers, fundraising and a $100,000 grant from the Roller-Bottimore Foundation, a Richmond nonprofit devoted to local history and historic preservation, the window project wrapped up last fall. The Pump House is now naturally illuminated for the first time in decades.
It was a laborious process. The large, heavy windows were enclosed within the stone walls, making replacement difficult. And because many were situated near the Kanawha Canal side of the building, ladders were swamped and access was sometimes limited when the city raised the water levels.
In addition to serving Richmond’s water supply from 1883 to 1924, the Byrd Park Pump House was a popular social spot, hosting lavish parties and dances on its second floor. By the 1950s, however, the structure had fallen into disrepair; it was scheduled for demolition before being sold to First Presbyterian Church for a dollar in 1956.
Now owned by the city, the Pump House is slowly being brought back to life. “The next big [project] is the roof,” Markham says. “We have about $2.2 million in funding lined up.”
