Up to $500,000 in state funding has been secured for a project that will transform the long-standing Waterworks Building on Little Walnut Road in Silver City.
Plans have long been in the works to transform the structure into a new way station for those walking and riding along the Continental Divide Trail, which cuts through Silver City.
The sandstone building was completed in 1887 and for decades was the operating facility for Silver City’s municipal water system.
Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, the structure is made up of a one-story section that initially used to house boilers and steam-powered pumps, along with a two-story section that served as the engineer’s residence.
The $500,000 is coming in the form of a capital outlay that was approved earlier this year by members of the New Mexico State Legislature and signed into law by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.
The project will see the construction of museum, retail and event space inside the Waterworks Building.
Late last year a group called the Southwest New Mexico Arts, Culture, and Tourism, received funding through the state’s New Mexico Economic Development Department to also build an education pavilion at the site.
That funding came through the department’s Outdoor Recreation Division.
By Garry Boulard
