{"nrhp_refnum":"05001362","name":"Foxborough Pumping Station","other_names":["Foxborough Pumping Station #1 Waterworks District"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"25 Pumping Station Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Foxborough","county":"Norfolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.07763350000005,"lon":-71.23819480836872,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2005-12-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Community Planning and Development","Engineering"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A municipal waterworks district at 25 Pumping Station Road, Foxborough, Massachusetts, centered on a brick Queen Anne pumping station built in 1891 and designed by Boston architect Ernest N. Boyden. It includes ancillary buildings, wells, Fales Pond and an abandoned well field on 26.6 acres.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the district as the town's original public water supply, built after more than a decade of planning and two Town Meeting votes. The pumping station is a surviving example of work by waterworks architect Ernest N. Boyden, whose designs commonly used the Queen Anne style. The site keeps its original station, pond and well field remnants along with later water-supply additions.","narrative":"Foxborough's first public water supply is preserved at a 26.6-acre waterworks district off Chestnut Street. Its centerpiece is a one-story, L-shaped pumping station of Taunton brick, completed in 1891 to plans by Boston architect Ernest N. Boyden and built by William O'Connell of Canton. Each of its three rooms, for engine, boiler and coal, has its own pyramidal slate roof, and the engine room has a large Romanesque arched window. Other resources include a 1953 storage garage, three 1948 driven wells, man-made Fales Pond and the abandoned original well field of about twenty-four pipe heads. A 1989 chemical building and a 1972 well are noncontributing. The district reflects a long local effort: a waterworks vote failed in 1890 and passed in 1891 after the charter was changed to allow a majority vote. Boyden had designed several other Massachusetts pumping stations, and the Foxborough station follows his typical Queen Anne approach. The town still owns and uses the site for water supply.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Architect Ernest N. Boyden of Boston; built by William O'Connell of Canton","architectural_style":"Late Victorian: Queen Anne","criteria":[],"status_note":"Still used as a waterworks; the boiler and coal rooms now serve as storage, and the original 24-well field is abandoned. Two of three 1948 wells are working.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.063868-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/86/7962/63796286/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/05001362.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05001362/4de481f9a8-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05001362/4de481f9a8-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FoxboroughMA_PumpingStation.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Magicpiano</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FoxboroughMA_PumpingStation.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796286","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxborough_Pumping_Station","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5477092"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/norfolk-county/foxborough-pumping-station-05001362/"}