The Gansevoort Pumping Station was designed in 1906 and completed in 1908. This low brick building was designed by Bernstein & Bernstein, an architecture firm led by two brothers, Michael and Mitchell Bernstein, known for their tenement apartment buildings in the South Village area.

The pumping station was the first pumphouse of the High-Pressure Fire Service. Fire hydrants that were fed by the HPFS could churn out a whopping 125 lbs of pressure, as opposed to low-pressure pumps that only supplied 30 pounds.

When a call for a fire came in that would require the H.P. system, the fire alarm headquarters would notify the pumping station who would turn on the pumps to feed nearby hydrants and firehouses. In the firehouse, a gong would signify the use of H.P. hydrants.

The High-Pressure Fire Service became obsolete by the mid-20th century, and the pumping station was converted to serve the needs of the commercial waterfront along the Hudson. According to Village Preservation, buildings in the area were "designed in then-fashionable styles...later adapted for market use." The area became a central hub for New York's foodstuffs known as the Meat Packing District.

The former pumping station was converted into cold storage for the city-sponsored Gansevoort Market Meat Center. In the 1980s, a private vendor called Premier Veal moved in.

In 2015, the building was razed to make way for an entirely new type of structure, the Whitney Museum of American Art. A six-story museum was designed by Renzo Piano to meet the needs of the growing museum.

The High Line and various galleries in the area have made the former market district into a prestigious scene for contemporary art. Just after the Whitney's opening, the Times wrote the following: "By moving downtown...the Whitney Museum of American Art does more than drop a cultural anchor at the High Line’s base, in the deracinated meatpacking district. The move confirms a definitive shift in the city’s social geography, which has been decades coming."