Brooklyn Waterworks

The Brooklyn Waterworks, also known as the Milburn Pumping Station, was a historic building in Freeport, Long Island. Designed by noted Brooklyn architect Frank Freeman and completed in 1890, it was described as "Long Island's most ambitious Romanesque Revival design."

After the Waterworks was decommissioned in the 1970s, it was purchased in 1989 by a property developer who planned to convert it into apartments. During the renovation however, the building was severely damaged by fire. Attempts to redevelop what remains of the structure have since met with failure due to legal disputes.

In the 1880s, the then City of Brooklyn acquired Milburn Pond in Freeport to feed the Ridgewood Reservoir to serve Brooklyn's growing water needs. The pond was subsequently enlarged, and architect Frank Freeman engaged to design a new, larger pumping station. The new station, completed in 1891, housed five large steam pumps capable of delivering up to 54 million US gallons (200,000 m³) a day.^[1][2]

In 1898, Brooklyn was absorbed into New York City, allowing the former access to the Croton Aqueduct system, and reducing demand for the Milburn supply. By 1929, the Milburn Pumping Station was downgraded to a standby supply, for operation only in emergencies, at which time the building's two large smokestacks were dismantled. The pumping station was retained as a standby supply until 1977, when the property was sold to Nassau County and the machinery removed. The property was thereafter allowed to fall into decay.^[1]

In 1989, the property was purchased at auction by a developer, Gary Mileus, for the sum of $1.4 million. Mileus set to work converting the building into 48 condominiums, a project set for completion in 1990.^[1] However, a housing market collapse put the project on hold, and the building was later severely damaged by a fire. Mileus then came up with a new proposal to convert what remained of the building into a nursing home, but this plan was eventually blocked by local government. In 2009, Mileus won a $3.5 million lawsuit relating to ownership of the property from the Village of Freeport, with further lawsuits pending. Mileus estimates that prior to the 2009 lawsuit, he had lost $12 million on the property.^[3]

En agosto de 2010, la mayor parte de lo que quedaba en pie había sido demolido, y en 2019 no quedaba nada de la estructura. Ahora es un terreno renaturalizado que forma parte de la Reserva Brookside.

La planta potabilizadora de Brooklyn ha sido descrita como «sin duda el diseño neorrománico más ambicioso de Long Island». ^{[ 2 ]} El edificio «monumental» fue construido con ladrillo «rojo intenso» e incluía torres, grandes ventanas arqueadas, buhardillas y un imponente arco romano para la entrada principal. Las paredes presentaban una profusa ornamentación de ladrillo tallado y terracota . ^{[ 1 ] [ 2 ]}

El interior del edificio incluía una sala principal acabada en dos tonos de ladrillo naranja. El techo estaba sostenido por una espaciosa cercha de pasadores , mientras que una elaborada pasarela de hierro recorría las paredes, rodeando las cinco bombas de vapor gigantes. ^{[ 1 ]}

Brooklyn ha tenido muchos embalses; se pueden ver en un mapa de 1864 de las Obras Hidráulicas de Brooklyn. ^{[ 4 ]} Se enumeran a continuación, de este a oeste:

1. Embalse de Hempstead
2. Estanque de Smith
3. Embalse de Rockville
4. Estanque del arroyo del valle
5. Estanque Watts
6. Embalse de Clear Stream
7. Embalse de Brookfield
8. Estanque de Conselyea
9. Estanque P. Cornells
10. Estanque de Springfield
11. Estanque de una milla
12. Embalse de Jamaica
13. Embalse de Ridgewood
14. Embalse de Mount Prospect

• Instituto Americano de Arquitectos (1992): Guía arquitectónica del AIA para los condados de Nassau y Suffolk, Long Island , Dover Publications, ISBN 978-0-486-26946-7.