Tryon’s Splendid 1926 Water Works
Filters and chemical laboratory equipped with all modern water-testing devices
A rare illustrated brochure describes the up-to-date system of water works Tryon put into service in January 1927. Designed to deliver up to a million gallons per day, it was the result of three years planning. Financed by $150,000 in long-term bonds, it brought considerable national attention and was featured as a model system in America’s journal for public-works management.
In 1914 new standards for water quality were established by professionals in public health and endorsed by leaders seeking to attract new residents and businesses. Insurance firms wanted better water distribution for fighting fires. Throughout the country, private water concessions had been slow to come up to new standards, so most were bought out and Water made a responsibility of government. Tryon joined the trend, along with rapidly-growing Asheville, as well as Spartanburg and Greenville in South Carolina, where major storage reservoirs were built and mountain watersheds acquired.
Alluring view of Pacolet River, near Tryon
Big Fall Creek at point where water is taken from stream
Planners weighed two strategies. Was it better to pump from large bodies of water, rivers and reservoirs? Or to invest in gravity-fed supply from mountain sources at higher elevation? At Tryon, hydrology modeling showed investment in a new system sourcing from five mountain streams was better long-term, although initial cost would be greater, because the constant cost of pumping could be eliminated. The five streams could give Tryon 2.2 million gallons per day. Water rights at Big Fall Creek were bought for $27,500 from private Melrose Power Company, owned for future hydro-electric power generation. (Not a factor in the 1920s planning model, the plan also saved North Pacolet River and its tributaries from threats of environmental destruction by dams. Indeed the 1931 Tryon Garden Club project to conserve Pearson’s Glen, as America’s first preserve dedicated to botanical diversity, was made possible.)
Coagulating basin and filter building. Tryon is visible just below the skyline.
New sources from mountain streams didn’t, however, mean water would be pure to modern standards. Settling tanks had long been used, and sand filters. Tryon’s new system involved building an advanced plant to use equipment engineered by Roberts Filter Manufacturing Co. of Darby, Pennsylvania. The brick and concrete building had twin filter basins with a 27-inch sand filter medium above an 18-inch gravel layer. Basins had valves and a rate controller, to regulate flow. Departing the building, chlorine gas to destroy bacteria was added by a chlorinator of the latest design, before entering the clear water reservoir with 200,000 gallons capacity.
A wash water tank for 40,000 gallons was built on the hillside just above the building, to maintain the sand filters by removing surface deposit. The flush-water got passed through the filters from the bottom, then out via waste troughs. A complete chemical and bacteriological laboratory was installed in the filter plant, to conduct daily tests and record for quality control.
Another view of the interior of the splendidly equipped filter building
The state’s engineer G.M. Ridenour submitted his report in February 1927 that training and testing at Tryon’s new plant yielded admirable lab tests. Entering raw water from the mountain streams had B. coli, none after treatment. Carbon dioxide was effectively eliminated, and turbidity reduced to nothing as well. Slight alkalinity was maintained so pipe corrosion would be prevented. For the first time in history, water customers were assured healthy drinking water. They also started paying for water actually used, as meters were installed for the first time. (Previously customers paid a monthly flat-rate for water service.) The rate schedule was set to pay for costs of operation, plus retirement of the financing bonds.
An excellent view of the new filter plant and both old and new reservoirs where Tryon's water is purified and stored.
(Left) Old reservoir. (Center) New filter building. (Right) New reservoir.
The Tryon fire department bought its first truck with a pump. From the mountainside plant above Tryon, bigger water mains were laid into the town itself. Growing Tryon enjoyed all the water it could use in ’27 and for years long after, having experienced painful lack in ’24 and ’25 especially – which stimulated town leaders to invest in the bigger and better system.
Here one has a fine view across Little Fall Creek at point where pipe lines converge
Harwood Beebe
Mastermind of the successful new system was Harwood Beebe (1885 – 1958) born in Norwich, Connecticut. His father Charles Harwood Beebe II ran the Norwich Lock Manufacturing company which he moved in 1891 to booming Roanoke in southwest Virginia. Much like the textile mill villages developed during that era, Norwich Lock’s enterprise plan at Roanoke included worker and manager housing, a church, a school and a cemetery. Harwood’s mother Esther, from Baltimore, was an entrepreneur as well. She owned a North Carolina gold mine and a resort in Montgomery County. Young Harwood entered North Carolina State at Raleigh and graduated in 1908 with an engineering degree.
In 1909 Esther was driving her own buggy hitched to a high-spirited horse that bolted. She died of a broken neck. Harwood had launched a career engineering railroads in the Carolinas but her demise caused him to pursue new directions. In 1916 he moved to Spartanburg S.C. to work with civil engineering consultant Reid Tull. After Tull’s death two years later, Beebe started his own consultancy that developed into the region’s leading engineering firm. His early success with the landmark Tryon project was instrumental in promoting Beebe’s expertise in water-system engineering and construction management. We suppose the handsome 1927 publication, printed at Spartanburg, was produced and distributed at his own expense.
