First Lift Station

Mission Canal Company Second Lift Pumphouse
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Show map of Texas Show map of the US
Location	Mission, Texas
Coordinates	26°12′43″N 98°19′51″W / 26.21194°N 98.33083°W / 26.21194; -98.33083Coordinates: 26°12′43″N 98°19′51″W / 26.21194°N 98.33083°W / 26.21194; -98.33083
Built	1910
Architect	Simmons, Albert
MPS	Mission, Hidalgo County MPS
NRHP Reference #	02000910[1]
Added to NRHP	August 30, 2002

The First Lift Station is a pump station in Mission, Texas that once provided water for irrigating the crops of the early Rio Grande Valley. In 1907 John J. Conway and James W. Hoit began the Mission Canal Co. Irrigation system, which was instrumental in the early agricultural growth of the area. Here, they built the first pump station. The pump was powered by steam produced by wood-fired boilers. The chimney, which still stands at the site, was made out of handmade brick from Madero. It is 106 feet tall and 6 feet in diameter. The top of the chimney has a double row of bricks that form a partial design, but the top was never completed. The chimney was dedicated as a Texas Historic Landmark by the Texas Historical Commission in 1985.

The boilers began operation in 1907 and the lift station started to pump water from the Rio Grande. Wood was used in units of 2 to 3 cords (7 to 11 m³) and a crew of 26 men with teams of mules worked around the clock to keep the boilers fed.

The plant was later operated by John H. Shary and by Hidalgo County Water Control and Improvement Districts No. 7 and No. 14. The property was developed for recreational use after dams and a new pumping plant were built upstream in the late 1950s. The chimney is still standing at the site of Chimney Park.^[2]

References

National Register of Historic Places in Texas
Lists by county	Anderson Andrews Angelina Aransas Archer Armstrong Atascosa Austin Bailey Bandera Bastrop Baylor Bee Bell Bexar Blanco Borden Bosque Bowie Brazoria Brazos Brewster Briscoe Brooks Brown Burleson Burnet Caldwell Calhoun Callahan Cameron Camp Carson Cass Castro Chambers Cherokee Childress Clay Cochran Coke Coleman Collin Collingsworth Colorado Comal Comanche Concho Cooke Coryell Cottle Crane Crockett Crosby Culberson Dallam Dallas Dawson Deaf Smith Delta Denton DeWitt Dickens Dimmit Donley Duval Eastland Ector Edwards El Paso Ellis Erath Falls Fannin Fayette Fisher Floyd Foard Fort Bend Franklin Freestone Frio Gaines Galveston Garza Gillespie Glasscock Goliad Gonzales Gray Grayson Gregg Grimes Guadalupe Hale Hall Hamilton Hansford Hardeman Hardin Harris Harrison Haskell Hartley Hays Hemphill Henderson Hidalgo Hill Hockley Hood Hopkins Houston Howard Hudspeth Hunt Hutchinson Irion Jack Jackson Jasper Jeff Davis Jefferson Jim Hogg Jim Wells Johnson Jones Karnes Kaufman Kendall Kenedy Kent Kerr Kimble King Kinney Kleberg Knox La Salle Lamar Lamb Lampasas Lavaca Lee Leon Liberty Limestone Lipscomb Live Oak Llano Loving Lubbock Lynn Madison Marion Martin Mason Matagorda Maverick McCulloch McLennan McMullen Medina Menard Midland Milam Mills Mitchell Montague Montgomery Moore Morris Motley Nacogdoches Navarro Newton Nolan Nueces Ochiltree Oldham Orange Palo Pinto Panola Parker Parmer Pecos Polk Potter Presidio Rains Randall Reagan Real Red River Reeves Refugio Roberts Robertson Rockwall Runnels Rusk Sabine San Augustine San Jacinto San Patricio San Saba Schleicher Scurry Shackelford Shelby Sherman Smith Somervell Starr Stephens Sterling Stonewall Sutton Swisher Tarrant Taylor Terrell Terry Throckmorton Titus Tom Green Travis Trinity Tyler Upshur Upton Uvalde Val Verde Van Zandt Victoria Walker Waller Ward Washington Webb Wharton Wheeler Wichita Wilbarger Willacy Williamson Wilson Winkler Wise Wood Yoakum Young Zapata Zavala
National Parks	Big Bend National Park Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Other lists	Bridges National Historic Landmarks National Natural Landmarks Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks
Keeper of the Register History of the National Register of Historic Places Property types Historic district Contributing property