Village Pump House

Location: Mt. Baldhead Park at Park Street, Saugatuck
Date: 1904 – 1910 and later restorations

This Arts & Crafts-Craftsman style building housed Saugatuck’s first municipal water system, which provided clean and regular water for all and made the fear of fire less a part of daily life. John Alvord and Charles Bird designed and engineered the structure in 1904. Alvord was a partner of the famous Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, and was in charge of the layout of the great Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893—and a summer resident of the Douglas lakeshore. The building was saved from destruction by the William Shorey family of Chicago and has housed the award-winning Historical Museum (and garden) since 1993.