Prospect Park Wellhouse

200 Wellhouse Drive | also 95 Prospect Park West | Prospect Park | built 1869

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1869
The park's Wellhouse is built in 1869 to pump water for the pools, waterfalls and lake
The Wellhouse was built in 1869, in the era of the park's designers Olmsted and Vaux, to pump water to the pools, waterfalls and lake. An underground platform let visitors watch the machinery. When the park was connected to the city water supply in the early twentieth century, the building became obsolete. Of all the structures from the park's original design, it is the sole survivor.
Source: prospectpark.org
2017
The restored Wellhouse opens as New York's first composting-toilet comfort station in a city park
The Prospect Park Alliance restored the Wellhouse with a new roof, repaired brickwork and a recreated portico painted in period colors based on historic photos. It reopened as a composting comfort station, a first for any New York City park, and the first time in 80 years the building was open to the public. A greywater garden irrigates the landscape, and the project is expected to keep about 250,000 gallons a year out of the sewer. The $2.34 million cost was funded by the City Council.
Source: prospectpark.org

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