Historic Cheyenne presents preservation plan for city pump house; costs, floodplain and National Register questions remain

Historic Cheyenne Incorporated presented a historical overview and preliminary preservation options for the city’s late-19th-century pump house to the Cheyenne City Council and staff during a council meeting.

The presentation, given by Mary Kals, vice president of Historic Cheyenne Incorporated, summarized the pump house’s original engineering, social history and later municipal uses, and cited recent cost estimates and technical constraints the city must resolve before rehabilitation can proceed. "Our mission is to preserve historic properties and to educate the general public regarding the traditions, architecture, and history of Cheyenne," Kals told the council.

Kals said the pump house was built with living quarters and a large engine and boiler room to serve rapidly growing Cheyenne; she described the building’s Richardsonian Romanesque features and read press praise from the period, saying the local paper had called the structure "one of the handsomest structures in Cheyenne and will command the admiration of all who may visit that part of the city." She said the original Holly Duplex steam pump could draw up to 3,000,000 gallons per day and that an early test produced about 135 PSI at a downtown hydrant.

Why it matters: Council members framed the pump house as part of the West Edge redevelopment, the city greenway connection and the Crow Creek drainage system. Preservation advocates say saving the structure would support heritage tourism and the Fifteenth Street heritage experience; city staff and council members repeatedly raised cost, floodplain, and regulatory uncertainties that affect feasibility.

Key details and site constraints - Cost estimates: Kals reported a current planning…