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• 1 2022-02-22T13:00:19-08:00 The Origins of the Waterworks 4 How did the building and infrastructure come to be? plain 2022-03-16T12:08:47-07:00
  Although the Carleton Place Waterworks was completed in 1914, the idea to introduce water systems infrastructure to the town was conceived in 1907. The Carleton Place town council first heard the idea from Mr. McAllister. An article from The Citizen reads: “At a meeting of the town council held on Monday evening Mr. McAllister gave notice of his intention to introduce at next meeting a bylaw to borrow $250,000 to establish a system of waterworks and drainage in town.” (The Citizen, October 18, 1907). Establishing such infrastructure for a town certainly does not come cheap as we see from McAllister’s proposal; however, the introduction of waterworks to the town would greatly benefit the community. Despite the idea being discussed with the town council in 1907, it was not until June 1914 that the contracts for the waterworks were established. This introduces Mr. R. G. Reinke, one of the prominent figures in the introduction of the Waterworks building: “Mr. R. G. Reinke, of Eganville, Ont., has been awarded the contract for the pumping plant and intake pipe of the Carleton Place Waterworks, and the tender of Mr. F. F. Fry, of Toronto, for the sewage disposal plant has been accepted. This will mean a considerable addition to the working force upon the waterworks for the present season” (Ottawa Citizen, June 6, 1914). The construction of the Carleton Place Waterworks required a larger workforce. Carleton Place had existing workforces in lumber, railway, and foundry industries, so some of the workers for the Carleton Place Waterworks came from elsewhere: “A public vote endorsed a waterworks installation bylaw. Twenty-five thousand feet of steel pipe was ordered from Scotland. The excavation contractor from Kingston began work with thirty Bulgarians, who were quartered in the old Caldwell sawmill boarding house in the town park, a dozen Italians accommodated in the Leach school house building, and a dozen Romanians in addition to local excavation workers.” (Carleton Place Local History).  
  
  No time was wasted with the added workforce, and by late July 1914 a considerable amount of work had already been completed on the infrastructure, as well as the Carleton Place Waterworks building itself. The front page of the Tuesday, July 18, 1914, edition of the Carleton Place Herald notes the progress of the construction: “The several contractors on the waterworks are making satisfactory progress at present. The men at the river are drilling and turning up the rock in the bed, as well as working on High Street. Mr. Fry is moving along at the disposal works and Mr. Reinke has the excavation for the powerhouse most out, whilst a gang of men are making cement bricks at the rate of 1000 an hour. The contracts for the water tower, pumps, and the other machinery will be awarded shortly” (The Carleton Place Herald, July 28, 1914). Work continues for quite some time before the local news remarks on its completion. It is not until October of the same year, 1914, that the town receives news on the progress of the Carleton Place Waterworks; the paper reads: “The first waterworks contract is about complete. The pipes have been laid across the river, the left-over hydrants have been placed, and in a few days the last pipes on High Street will be laid. A test is to be made some time next week, and all householders who have connections are notified to see that they are closed to prevent flooding.” (The Carleton Place Herald, October 6, 1914). As the infrastructure progresses throughout the town, the people of Carleton Place were notified later that month, October 27, that the Carleton Place Waterworks building itself was of handsome proportions and would be an ornamental building of the first rank. (The Carleton Place Herald, Oct 27, 1914).