DO DRINK THE WATER

Before a new house is completed today in the Twin Cities, the utilities (sewer, water, natural gas, electricity, etc.) are already in place. The owners take it for granted that their new home will have all the modern amenities. Over a century ago, providing utilities was far less orderly or assured. Imagine the disruptions to daily life as water, sewer, and gas lines were installed after homes and commercial buildings were finished!
Building out municipal water services had a tremendously positive impact on human health. Prior to 1910, annual outbreaks of cholera, dysentery, typhoid and yellow fever were a fact of life in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Significant changes in municipal water services happened during the time (1905 to 1930) when most of our local bungalows were built.
Because city water systems grew outward from the downtown neighborhoods along the Mississippi River, the earliest bungalows that were built near the river likely had running water from day one. Historians note that whether or not you had running water in your home depended on two factors: your distance from city water lines and your financial ability to pay the costs.

Private Industry
Homeowners who built further away from the river relied on private wells or water delivery businesses until the city extended service to their block. While bungalow owners celebrated the arrival of municipal water, they had to endure years of inconsistent water pressure, and water that frequently smelled and tasted awful.
The lack of good quality water created opportunities for local businesses to flourish. Early entrepreneurs would deliver water to your door by the barrel. Or if you had the money, you could drill a shallow well for your household use. The geologic structure under the Twin Cities held water at relatively shallow depths but was also vulnerable to pollution from increasing population. The geology also produced several natural springs that companies tapped to provide bottled water. Some of these companies enjoyed decades of success, even after municipal water became more reliable, healthier, and better tasting.
The Glenwood Inglewood Spring Water company arose in the late 1800s near Bassett’s Creek on the edge of Minneapolis’ Bryn Mawr neighborhood. The family-owned company survived for decades by delivering water to homes and businesses and later, selling the water through stores. The brand was sold in 1990 to a Colorado company and is no longer bottled locally. The water plant is now home to Utepils Brewing.
Over in St. Paul, the Highland Spring Water Company formed in 1900 and flourished on sales of still and carbonated water products. The water plant was built on the site of a former dairy farm, which included a pond that supplied ice that the company used to chill their products while being delivered throughout St. Paul. Recent investigations have uncovered the presence of several historic wells on the property, which casts doubt on the company’s claim of selling “spring-fed” water. The irony is that the well water would have provided much higher quality water than any shallow-sourced springs. The Highland Spring Water Company closed in 1965, and the land was redeveloped for an apartment building.

Our City Does It Differently
In the early 20th century as bungalows were built across Twin Cities neighborhoods, city water systems became more efficient and better able to provide healthy drinking water that looked and tasted far better than anything that came before. In general, Minneapolis was often the first to develop its city water system with St. Paul trailing behind and taking full advantage of its chain of lakes and learning from Minneapolis’ efforts.
One difference between the cities is their water source. While Minneapolis draws all of its drinking water from the Mississippi River, St. Paul has drilled 10 wells to supplement supplies when demand exceeds what the river can provide. Another difference is St. Paul’s reliance on area lakes to filter the river water.

Minneapolis
In 1867, business owners around St. Anthony Falls encouraged Minneapolis to provide water service for firefighting needs in the densely populated area west of the Falls. The pumps merely drew surface water from the Mississippi. Five years later, the first shallow wells were drilled to provide drinking water. More wells were added in 1885 to serve the rapidly growing population on the east side of the river.
Unfortunately, the river also served as the city’s sewer, both upriver and downriver from the wells. So, a new pumping station was added at 37th Avenue Northeast. Water was stored in large reservoir basins to allow organic matter to settle out of the water before distribution. The original pumping stations and wells stayed in service until 1904.
Harmful bacteria remained in the water, which sickened and killed hundreds of residents each year. A series of newspaper editorials encouraged residents to sue the city because it had failed to sanitize the city’s water to protect citizens. In 1910, Minneapolis began adding a small amount of chlorine to the water in a “sterilization” plant prior to distribution. The only typhoid epidemic to occur after 1910 was due to an episode of low chlorine concentration. A water filtration plant opened in 1913 and gave the city new tools to provide healthy water.
In the early 20th century, Minneapolis struggled to meet the demand for water and to maintain consistent pressure throughout the growing city. The solution was to create a network of water towers. Three of them remain today as neighborhood icons. The original Washburn water tower opened in 1893 and was replaced with the current tower in 1931. The Kenwood Water Tower opened in 1910. The Prospect Park Water Tower, dubbed the “Witches Hat” tower because of its iconic roof, opened next in 1914. All three are no longer used for storing water.
St. Paul
In 1869, the first water taps were turned on in St. Paul. The water was initially piped from Lake Phalen, which is at the southern end of a small chain of interconnected lakes. By the turn of the century, the water utility was tapping other lakes, eventually reaching out to Centerville Lake in 1896. The city built a pumping station near Roseville’s McCarrons Lake in 1913 and connected it to Vadnais Lake. Soon after, it was clear the city needed a larger, more sustainable source of water.
Several competing ideas were considered. Contenders included building a pumping station on the St. Croix River north of Taylors Falls; drilling a series of deep wells; and building an aqueduct to Mille Lacs Lake.
After years of study and discussion, city leaders chose what they determined was the most practical and dependable option—building an intake station on the Mississippi River and piping the water into the northern end of its chain of lakes system. Construction began in 1924 on the pumping station, which is located near the intersection of Osborne Road and East River Road in Fridley. From there, the water was piped roughly 8 miles underground to Charley Lake in North Oaks.
Much like the reservoir basins that Minneapolis built to allow organic contaminants to settle out of the river water, the chain of lakes—Charley to Pleasant to Sucker to Vadnais—serve a similar purpose for St. Paul water users. To improve water even further, a filtration and treatment plant was added to the McCarrons pumping station in 1923, roughly 10 years after Minneapolis built their plant. Today, aeration and other treatment systems in the lakes help reduce phosphorus and algae growth in the water before reaching the treatment plant. The lakes also store roughly 3.6 billion gallons of water.
St. Paul has only one historic water tower standing, and it is grand. The Highland Park Water Tower was completed in 1928 and is the tallest of the historic towers in the Twin Cities at 134 feet tall. It was designed by Clarence “Cap” Wigington, the nation’s first Black city architect. Like its Minneapolis cousins, the Highland Park tower is no longer used for water service. But unlike the others, the St. Paul tower has an observation deck that is open to the public a couple of times a year.

Aging Infrastructure
The water systems of Minneapolis and St. Paul grew rapidly before, during and after the years when so many bungalows were built. Despite ongoing modernization projects, many parts of the infrastructure we rely on today date back to those early efforts. It is amazing and humbling that the high quality design and construction work has endured.

This article was originally printed in the summer 2026 Small Home Gazette, published by the Twin Cities Bungalow Club. Learn more about club membership and its Bungalow Tour at www.bungalowclub.org. Bungalow Club board members include Tim Counts, Mike Lazaretti, Deb McKinley, Martin Moen and Gail Tischler.