The High Pumping Station in the northwest section of The Bronx was built in the years 1901-06 by George W. Birdsall of The Department of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity. Constructed as part of the Jerome Reservoir complex, an adjunct to the Croton Aqueduct system, the station was Built to pump water from the reservoir located to its west to consumers throughout the Borough. The area that gave rise to this reservoir gained its name from the Jerome Park Racetrack (named for one of its founders, Leonard W. Jerome, Winston Churchill’s grandfather) which occupied the site between 1876 and 1890. Dating back to the time of the American Revolution this land was the property of Colonel Frederick Philipse, a Tory whose estate was later confiscated by the Continental Congress