Documentary History of American Water-works

North Conway

North Conway, New Hampshire

North Conway was incorporated in 1765.

A 2006 history of water systems in New England includes an 1833 water system in North Conway using iron pipe to distribute water from Artist's Brook, but no citation is given and no other reference about this system has been found. An 1883 system did distribute water from Artist's Brook using iron pipes.

Amos Thompson (1839-1926) and his son Ed are credited in a 2008 history with building the first water system in North Conway, although no details were given except that some wooden pump logs would found

The North Conway Aqueduct and Water Company was incorporated in 1877 by Samuel W. Thompson, G. W. M. Pitman, Sam'l D. Thompson, N. W. Pease, Isaac M. Chase and W. H. Bragdon "to lay out, make and keep in repair an aqueduct from any point in the village and vicinity of North Conway to any spring, brook, river, pond or lake anywhere in said town or vicinity which does not now supply any aqueduct, and take water therefrom sufficient to supply said aqueduct and convey said water to the village of North Conway and vicinity — either by logs or pipes of iron or lead as it may deem best." No evidence has been found that this company built a system.

The North Conway Water-works was organized under the laws of New Hampshire, January 19, 1883 and built a system that furnished water on August 23, 1883.

The North Conway Water and Improvement Company was incorporated in 1891 by Lycurgus Pitman, Alfred Eastman, Moses A. Davis, Willis A. Weeks, and William B. Tasker "for the purpose of bringing fresh water into North Conway in subterranean pipes for domestic and mechanical use and for fire purposes, and to construct and maintain a system of sewerage. This company acquired the North Conway Water-works.

The North Conway water precinct organized in 1905 and bought the North Conway Water and Improvement Company.

Water in the Village of North Conway is provided by the North Conway Water Precinct.

References
1877 An act to incorporate the North Conway Aqueduct and Water Company. April 14, 1877.

1884 "North Conway," from Engineering News 12:178 (October 11, 1884)

1888 "North Conway," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 1.

1889 History of Carroll County, New Hampshire
Page 882: North Conway Water-works was organized under the laws of New Hampshire, January 19, 1883, with a capital of $8,000, which was afterwards increased to $15,000. The original stockholders were: Lycurgus Pitman, Alfred Eastman, Thomas P. Murphy, W. M. Pitman, William H. Bragdon, L. W. Brock, George V. Eastman, Charles J. Poole, James L. Gibson, W. H. Jacobs, F. L. Mason. Work was begun at once, and the company commenced to furnish water August 23, 1883, supplying forty-one hotels and families the first year. One hundred places are supplied, and the supply from the present source is adequate to fill double the present demand. The water is of extreme purity, and is drawn from the sources of Artists’ brook. The reservoir stands 175 feet above Main street. W. M. Pitman has been president, and Lycurgus Pitman secretary and treasurer, from the first. Alfred Eastman was superintendent until 1886; he was succeeded by Lycurgus Pitman.

1890 "North Conway," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 2.

1891 An act to incorporate the North Conway Water and Improvement Company. May 12, 1891.

1891 "North Conway," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 3.

1897 "North Conway," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 4.

1905 An act to authorize the North Conway Water Precinct to purchase and maintain a system of water works. February 14, 1905.

1912 Twenty-Second Report of the State Board of Health of the State of New Hampshire, for the Fiscal Period ending August 31, 1912.
Page 36: The village of North Conway and, except during the winter, the villages of Intervale and Kearsarge are furnished with waer by the North Conway Water and Improvement Co., the source being three brooks located on Hurricane Mountain and the water of which is stored in three separate reservoirs, known as the Hurricane, the Middle, and the Artist Falls reservoirs. Commencing at the Fairview in Intervale, all the houses to the southern limits of North Conway are supplied by this system.

1998 Conway, New Hampshire, 1765-1997: Including Its Villages: Center Conway, Conway Village, East Conway, Intervale, Kearsarge, North Conway, Redstone, by Janet McAllister Hounsell and Ruth Burnham Davis Horne
Page 50: The Kearsarge Hotel had a garage and hired its own chauffeurs to drive seven-passenger vehicles in which guests were transported to various points of interest. A pit was dug over which an automobile could be positioned to be worked on. During the era that this business existed, buried wooden water pipes were found, probably in use many years earlier and attributable to Ed Thompson, son of inventor Amos, who was considered 'the' expert on the waterworks.
Page 209: Amos Thompson, mentioned earlier as a smithy in the Kearsarge carriage business, was renowned for his ingenuity. In addition, Thompson installed possibly the earliest water system in North Conway village.
Page 377: Before there could be a hope of successful fire fighting, a reliable source of water was needed. According to the Conway Register of 1905, the North Conway Water Works Co. was organized in January 1883, with a capital stock of $8,000, later increased to $15,000. The original stockholders were: L. Pitman, Alfred Eastman, Thomas P. Murphy, W.M. Pitman, William H. Bragdon, L.W. Brock, George V. Eastman, Charles J. Poole, James L. Gibson, W.H. Jacobs, and F.L. Mason.
Work was begun at once and on Aug. 28, 1883, water was furnished for forty-on hotels and families, a hundred places in all. The supply from Artists' Falls Brook with a reservoir standing 175 feet above Main Street, was considered adequate to fill double the demand.
Page 388: In 1956, the village of Conway had begun using a new water system, necessitated by the old reservoir's having become inadequate to the demand. The new site was the former Conway Airport, just east of North Road (near today's Forest Service Ranger Station). Here a brick-and-cement building was erected over a forty-five foot-deep deep well. The building housed a pump that forced water directly into the mains and the standpipe on Bald Hill, Albany. The system worked automatically by an electric device, which came on whenever the pressure in the mains dropped to a given point.

2006 New England Water Supplies – A Brief History, by Marcis Kempe, Journal of the New England Water Works Association 120(3) (September 2006)
Page 9: North Conway, NH, 1833, Cast Iron, Artist's Brook
Page 82: In New England, the first cast iron pipe is believed to be a 1833 North Conway NH cast iron pipe serving its Artist’s Brook supply.

2015 Early Hotels, Part II: The Inns of North Conway, by Brian P. Wiggin, The Conway Daily Sun, September 16, 2015
The Artist Falls House likely was built during the American Revolution. Sources say it may have been 1780. It is today known as Forest Glen and is located at the end of the original road (Artists' Falls Road). This was the very first road in North Conway to branch off from Main Street, according to Janet Hounsell in her book, "Conway, New Hampshire:1765-1997." Water was piped in from a nearby mineral spring. The name for Artists' Falls Road came from White Mountain School of Art painter Benjamin Champney (1817-1907) and his friends who frequented it.