Rose Hill history: The man behind Macon’s running water

Have you ever thought about the wonder of turning on your tap and having a steady supply of clean water appear? In the 1880s, Macon’s residents depended upon wells or cisterns from springs for water. Running low or out of water was a concern for both firefighting and for drinking and washing. As Macon’s population grew from 5,720 in 1850 to 12,749 in 1880, it was apparent that Macon needed a better system. The first person in Macon to make this happen was Arthur E. Boardman.  

Boardman was born in Macon in March 1850 and was the oldest of eight children.  Raised in a house on First Street, he graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York in 1870 with a degree in civil engineering. He returned to Macon and began work in the city engineering office as a surveyor. 

He was elected to the office of city engineer in 1872 and that same year drew a detailed map of the city. Known as the “Boardman Map,” it is revered by engineers and surveyors for its detail and is still used today as a reference for distances for rights-of-ways and widths of streets. It also included every cistern and well so that the firemen could locate the nearest water supply in case of a fire. 

In 1874 Boardman resigned from office when he was elected to the board of the Macon Gas Light Water Company (MGLW), a privately-owned utility company that contracted with the city. Starting in 1881, Boardman oversaw the creation of Macon’s first public waterworks. 

The first step was the acquisition of Tuft Spring. Located outside the city limits, it produced a large volume of pure water.  MGLW bought the land upon which it sat and built a spring house. Next, they bought land on Troup Hill and laid pipes between the spring and a reservoir they built there to hold the spring water.  Now known as Pinnacle Park, this land is still part of Macon’s water system and houses a huge water tank as well as the park.

Then MGLW laid pipes from the reservoir throughout downtown. A large water tower was built in Chickamauga Park at the intersection of High and Orange streets that connected to the reservoir via more pipe. 

In 1887, Boardman and W.A. Jeter of Macon formed the Jeter-Boardman Gas & Water Association (JBA) and Boardman’s success in Macon led to contracts to build water works in Ocala and Tampa, Florida; Sumter, South Carolina; Tuscaloosa and Florence, Alabama; Brunswick and Cartersville, Georgia; and Johnson City, Tennessee. The value of the company doubled in its first year to $400,000, which is the equivalent of $13,000,000 today. 

By 1890, Macon’s population had jumped to 43,370 people, and Tuft Spring could not keep up with the daily demand. In May 1891, MGLW started pumping water from the Ocmulgee into the reservoir. City council and Macon citizens were in an uproar as they thought it was unsanitary. The practice stopped, but water continued to be in short supply. 

Between 1891 and 1894, MGLW and J&B defaulted on bonds and the companies were placed in receivership. In 1896, the court-appointed receiver built a pumping station along the Ocmulgee known as the Pierce Avenue Water Plant  (where Amerson River Park is now) and installed a  filtration system that guaranteed clear water.  Macon’s water supply was assured and in 1897 Boardman and Jeter regained control of Macon’s waterworks. However, both companies were dissolved in 1907.

In 1911, Boardman moved to Europe, where he took up residence in Germany. He spent the years of World War I in Switzerland and after the war moved to Italy.  He returned to Macon in 1929 where he resided with his niece and became president of the Macon Art Association. He exhibited many watercolors throughout the South. 
In 1932, his obituary in The Macon Telegraph said that he spent his last day working on a painting and died in his sleep.  His funeral was at Christ Episcopal Church, and he was buried alongside his parents and many siblings in Rose Hill Cemetery in the Magnolia Ridge section.  

In 2025, Liz Riley and Kathleen O’Neal began a visual inventory of every monument in Rose Hill Cemetery. The goal of this project is to provide a free, complete and accurate database of those interred, as well as maps for locating them. This column shares the fascinating stories discovered during this project.