{"nrhp_refnum":"80002849","name":"Lake Mattamuskeet Pump Station","other_names":["Mattamuskeet Lodge"],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"E of Swanquarter","address_restricted":false,"city":"Swanquarter","county":"Hyde County","state":"NC","lat":35.45194018500007,"lon":-76.17465748099994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-05-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Engineering"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A former steam pumping station of red brick at the intersection of the Outfall Canal and three other drainage canals at Lake Mattamuskeet, Swanquarter, Hyde County, North Carolina. Built between 1911 and 1913 and later converted by the Civilian Conservation Corps into a lodge.","why_significant":"The pumping plant was considered the largest in the world at the time and was an engineering accomplishment admired by agricultural engineers. It represents an era when large corporations tried to drain and farm the lake bottom, and engineers and visitors from other countries came to study it in the 1920s. The building's original architectural character is said to have been retained despite later modifications.","narrative":"Built between 1911 and 1913 at the junction of the Outfall Canal and three other drainage canals at Lake Mattamuskeet in Hyde County, North Carolina, this red brick pumping station once housed four steam-driven centrifugal pumps with Corliss engines and four boilers. Its 120-foot smoke stack and open interior of catwalks made it a striking industrial building. The plant was built by a corporation attempting to drain the lake bottom for farming, and it was considered the largest pumping plant in the world at that time. Engineers from other countries visited in the 1920s to study the drainage system. Crops grown on reclaimed lake bottom included corn, sweet potatoes, soybeans and rice. After the federal government acquired the lake as a wildlife refuge in 1934, the Civilian Conservation Corps converted the building into a lodge in 1935-1936, when the pumps were removed and the smoke stack became an observation tower. The changes did not erase the building's original character.","period_of_significance":"1900-1913","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Converted to a three-story lodge by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1935-1936 after the pumps and boilers were removed.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:41.524059-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/0/7209/47720900/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/80002849.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80002849/e35e787ae0-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80002849/e35e787ae0-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.0","author":"bobistraveling","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pumping_Station_Mattamuskeet_NWR_Fairfield_NC_8957_(23378630333).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">bobistraveling</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pumping_Station_Mattamuskeet_NWR_Fairfield_NC_8957_(23378630333).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47720900","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Mattamuskeet_Pump_Station","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19864995"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/hyde-county/lake-mattamuskeet-pump-station-80002849/"}