The first city waterworks sat just west of the Savannah-Ogeechee Canal and pumped water from the Savannah River to a large tower in Franklin Square. That system, used by the city since 1854, had become polluted by 1887. After new wells proved inadequate, in 1890 the City invited Chicago civil engineer Johnston, who recently had designed a water system for Memphis, Tennessee, to inspect the old waterworks system. He recommended building a new plant. The red brick pump house (which the Savannah Morning News described as “quite a handsome and imposing structure” in 1892) stands as an iconic monument to what was only a brief solution to the city’s insatiable desire for fresh water. Built by Savannah contractor W. F. Chaplin, the pump house drew more than sixteen million gallons a day from twelve wells dug five hundred to one thousand feet deep running along Stiles Avenue. The architecture and landscape of the pump house were a testament to Savannah’s technological advances, and by 1895, just two years after the building’s completion, city ordinances prohibited the use of surface wells in any area where municipal water mains were accessible. By 1896, however, there was sufficient need to again draw water from the Savannah River. The plant closed in 1940 and became a storage warehouse for the city.