nearly 100 year old house never had pump?

I bought a house built in 1920 in Denver that never had a sump pump. There is, however, a large area of the crawl space that gathers water after storms. How is it possible this house never had a pump? Could it be this walled off area of the crawl space just contained the water and it drained out eventually? I'm wondering if I should pay a plumber the nearly $1000 to install a sump, or look for where this water might have been draining all these years.

At one time I lived (rented) a house and there was a similar "pit" that regularly had some water in it, but never enough to spill out onto the floor and cause a problem. Maybe in your situation, the previous home owner would monitor the water level, and throw in a pump when needed? Not sure.

$1000 to install a sump pump seems expensive, but to be completely honest, I would just pay to have it done. I've done one myself, and between parts (pump, check valve, electrical work, PVC pipe, basin, cover, stone, concrete, tool rentals, etc.) and labor, it doesn't seem like it was worth the savings. Just make sure you know what they're planning on doing -sealed basin w/cover, and figure out where they will plan on discharging the pump if it ever needs to run. Good luck!

P.S. If you have time, upload a photo so we can see exactly what you're dealing with.

Is there an existing pit that just needs the pump dropped in it. What are they doing for that 1000.

For ~950 plumber will dig pit in crawl space, install pump and make hole and pipe to get it out of the house, plus water alarm. I got another estimate and it was $700 more. Thanks for the replies.