The Ottawa Waterworks Building is a historic waterworks in eastern Ottawa, Ohio, United States. Built in 1904,[1] it is Putnam County's oldest water pumping facility; as the first significant water-related public works project in Ottawa, it enabled the creation of a municipal water system in the village. In its earliest years, the waterworks sheltered equipment used to pump water from municipal wells.[2]
A single-story structure,[2] the Ottawa Waterworks Building is a brick structure, nine bays wide, which rests on a stone foundation. Protected by a roof of ceramic tiles, the building is decorated with stone and wooden elements.[3] The Waterworks Building served as Ottawa's primary water pumping facility for approximately seventy years, remaining active until a new waterworks was completed in the mid-1970s. Since that time, it has been used as storage for equipment and spare machinery for the water system.[2]
In 1976, the Ottawa Waterworks Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[1] It qualified for inclusion both because of its architecture and because of its place in local history:[3] it was deemed a fine example of a local public works building, and its role as the area's first water pumping station has made it a leading example of the development of early twentieth-century Putnam County.[2] Today, the Waterworks Building lies in a municipal park.[4]
