We loved the idea of having this pond and adding a little waterfall and some fish. I'm sure this original pond was nice at some point but it was time for an update. The liner was leaking, the rocks around the pond were in need of replacing, etc. 

You may wonder why there is a small pond here in the first place. This house was built in 1872 and there is still a very large cistern under the house. A cistern collects rain water. The water collected from the cistern was used for running water in the Hotel and to supply water to a boiler. The boiler provided forced air heating to the hotel. It appears to have been the first building in Calvert featuring this early version of "central heating",  It was also one of the first buildings in the city with electric lighting. Most cisterns in this area have been filled in with dirt and are usually located on the side of a house and not nearly as big as the one here at the Hotel. The Hotel cistern is under the front part of the building and is about as deep and wide as a small residential swimming pool. The location and size makes it difficult to access and fill with dirt.  At some point someone installed a pond to pump some of the water into when the cistern became too full of water. 

I guess if we really wanted to fill in the cistern we could, but we enjoy keeping as much of the history here at the Old Calvert Hotel as possible, plus we are loving the pond and fish.