Albany (N.Y.). Water Commissioners' Office

Albany, New York is located at the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers. The city of Albany became New York's state capital in 1797 when it was the state's second largest city after New York City. Albany in the mid-nineteenth century was a center for transportation. It had prominent port facilities on the Hudson River as well as being a hub for the Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road which built the Albany and Schenectady Rail Road (later to become part of the New York Central Rail Road through noted Albany industrialist, Erastus Corning), the Schenectady and Great Western Turnpike and the Erie Canal.

Prior to 1850, a private company, the Albany Waterworks Company, tapped a number of water sources to supply the city's water supply from various creeks of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers supplying water by iron pipes and reservoirs within the city environs to individual properties. During the 1830s and 1840s there is expressed by the citizenry a desire for a reliable larger quantity and purer quality of water. The Common Council of Albany presents the matter to the Albany Water Works Company who in turn hires a series of engineers to study the matter to determine a reliable, clean and economic water source. For a number of years this matter is under discussion by the private company and the Albany city council. Several sources of water were considered: the Hudson River (but pumps would be needed to raise the water to the city's level), the Mohawk River (conduits and aqueducts to carry the water into the city) as well as private wells.

In 1850 by an act of Legislature, the State of New York appoints Water Commissioners for the City of Albany to deal with the requests for an expanded water supply for the growing population of Albany. It is this group of Water Commissioners that has the authority to appoint William J. McAlpine, a prominent civil engineer and designer of the Brooklyn Water Works, to analyze the situation. His analysis of the various findings of previous engineers causes a detailed map of the neighboring environs of Albany to be made. McAlpine's plan determines the most reliable water head, purity of water and economical building plan to be damming the Patroon Creek forming Rensselaer Lake. The Water Commissioners secure water rights from Stephen van Rensselaer, owner of the land along Patroon Creek as well as his use of this water to power his woolen mills to build a reservoir. The Six-Mile Waterworks construction begins in 1851 with the damming of Patroon Creek, creating Rensselaer Lake, a reservoir for supplying the city of Albany with a steady source of water. At this time the city of Albany takes control of its own municipal water supply.