Mission Canal Company Second Lift Pumphouse

The Mission Canal Company Second Lift Pumphouse was built in 1910 by private land developers as part of an extensive irrigation system established to promote agriculture and land development in the Mission area. The pumphouse is significant at the local level and is nominated to the NRHP, in the area of agriculture, for its direct association with the irrigation companies and later, irrigation districts that played a large role in Mission's citriculture and urban development. The property is related to the historic context, Grapefruit's Lone Star Home: The Development Of Mission, Texas. Irrigation of the Lower Rio Grande Valley was the keystone of successful agriculture and the subsequent settlement of the area. The new economic opportunities created by the irrigated land in the Valley fostered rapid growth of agriculture and community in Mission in the first half of the 20th century.

John Conway and J. W. Hoit were among the many land developers who arrived in the Lower Rio Grande Valley shortly after the railroad extended its track into the area in 1904. The entrepreneurs built Mission's first lift station pumphouse on the bank of the Rio Grande in 1908, the same year they founded the town, which was sited about two miles north of the river. They hired local laborers to clear the land and dig a network of irrigation canals and laterals that linked the original pumphouse with their newly planted town. Subsequently, they divided the land into 20- to 40-acre irrigated farm tracts that were heavily promoted to farmers back East. The irrigation systems' success made newly subdivided farms marketable and as land development increased around the growing town, a second lift station pump was necessary to provide water to new tracts further north. Using Hispanic laborers, the Mission Canal Company completed the second lift pumphouse, made of local Madero brick, in 1910. Mission Canal Company hired Greg Wood, Sr., an influential leader in area irrigation improvements and later mayor of Mission, as superintendent of the canal system in 1910 (Kemp 4: 1995). The irrigation network was installed principally for agricultural uses and the city of Mission built a separate municipal water system for all other purposes.

Although agriculture was successful in the Mission area, Conway and Hoit could not finance their heavily mortgaged irrigation company. After it had been in receivership for two years, developer John Shary bought the holdings of Mission Canal Company in 1915, for a price of $850,000 (World-Herald: Omaha Jan. 14, 1916). The expansion of the irrigation system under the renamed United Irrigation Company reflected the boom years of Mission and adjacent Sharyland, an agricultural subdivision laid out and promoted by developer John Shary. Between 1918 and 1920, Shary added the third lift station and made it an attraction on his promotional tours as a model of modern irrigation facilities. By 1924, United Irrigation provided water for 25,000 acres of irrigated land. The company owned 20.56 miles of main canals, 22.57 sub-main canals, and 129.8 miles of laterals. By 1926, the company had upgraded the second lift pumphouse with modern electrically-driven pumps. Served by the growing United Irrigation Company, the Mission area supported almost 1.5 million fruit trees, more than any other irrigation district in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, by the early 1930s (Mission Enterprise May 25, 1933).

When a group of farmers to the north of Mission formed the Hidalgo County Water Control & Improvement District #7 in 1929, they purchased the canals in their area from John Shary, but they still depended on the company's lift pumps to provide water from the Rio Grande. In 1931, Mission residents formed another public district, Hidalgo County Water Control & Improvement District # 14, to the south of District #7 and closer to the river. Like District #7, the new District #14 purchased the canals within their boundaries but the United Irrigation Company retained ownership of the three lift stations and therefore was still responsible for pumping water to its own canals as well as the new public district canals.

During the 1930s, United Irrigation Company's improvements reflected the continued dominance of citriculture in Mission and the important role of the irrigation system in the local economy. In 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, the company requested a loan of $200,000 from the Federal Government to finance lining the earthen canals with concrete to prevent seepage and make irrigation more economically efficient. In his loan application, Shary pointed out that although United was a privately owned company, it provided a public service and should be eligible for improvement funds. The application portrayed the project as public work for the relief of unemployed people in Mission because it was expected to employ 115 men per day, mostly common laborers, for a period of six months. In addition to providing relief to the unemployed, United Irrigation also lowered its water rates from $3 and $4 per acre to $2.50 and $3.00 per acre, for the benefit of the landowners (Application, Board Meeting Minutes Oct. 9, 1933). United Irrigation Company also added a boiler room and raised the roof on the second lift pumphouse in 1936 (Heller 221: 1994). A small, metal-roofed storage building resembling a one-car garage was added to the site about that time, as well.

The second lift pumphouse remained a holding of United Irrigation Company until it was purchased, along with the rest of the system, by District #14 in 1951, following a devastating freeze that put many individual citrus growers out of business. The two public irrigation districts, #7 and #14, finally united in 1987 and adopted the name United Irrigation District. Shary used a similar name, United Irrigation Company, to demonstrate his idea that the area must be developed as a whole and that in the future Mission and Sharyland should "stand united" (Mission Times Dec. 24, 1915). Today, all that remains of the original first lift pumphouse is its chimney. The river-front land on which it stands is known as Chimney Park for its distinguishing feature. The second lift pumphouse is now vacant and the natural gas and electric pumps that replaced the old steam engines in 1984 have been moved to an adjacent location outside the building, to the east. The structure is a non-contributing feature of the historic property. The canal has been widened slightly to accommodate the new pump equipment and although the type of equipment has been updated, the station continues to "lift" water from the main canal to the upper canal system. The conjoined buildings that comprise the original pumphouse remain largely intact since their construction in 1910 and improvements in 1936. Of the three distinct sections of the historic pumphouse complex, the east wing retains the greatest overall integrity to the original period of use. The central engine room has been most altered, notably by the addition of a second floor, probably in 1936. The west wing was added in 1936, but the segmental arch windows and brick construction replicate the east wing's original design to a large degree. The towering cylindrical chimney is the most distinctive feature of the complex. Visible throughout much of Mission, it is a local landmark and tangible reminder of the city's agricultural heritage.

Located in John Shary's model subdivision, Sharyland, the third lift station has also been updated with smaller pumps and the old pumphouse is unused. While the third lift station retains its original integrity to a large degree and reflects the area's agricultural development in much the same way as the second lift station, it lies outside the Mission city limits, beyond the survey area boundaries, and the scope of this project. Furthermore, it is more closely associated with John Shary and his suburban development plans for Sharyland, a separate and more exclusive community outside the city of Mission. Conversely, the second lift station is the only part of the irrigation system wholly located in the city's original townsite and was directly associated with its development. It is, therefore, the most appropriate symbol of the city's agricultural origins. In addition, the irrigation district intends to transfer the second lift station to the city but retain ownership of the third lift station and the irrigation canals. The City of Mission and the irrigation district jointly supported the nomination of the second lift station. Although none of the system's original pumphouses are in use today, the irrigation district continues to supply water to agricultural users by way of the lift stations throughout the Mission area.

The second lift pumphouse is a towering landmark of the irrigation system that made farming and, later, citriculture, possible in the Mission area. It reflects the vision of early 20th-century entrepreneurs who transformed an arid landscape into productive farmland and developed a city from the South Texas desert. More than any other building or structure in the city, the second lift pumphouse symbolizes Mission's agricultural heritage and is therefore nominated to the National Register of Historic Places at the local level of significance in the area of Agriculture.