A Right to Be Clean: Sanitation and the Rise of New York City’s Water Towers

30th Street, between 7th and 8th, 2012.

During the morning rush hour in New York City, tourists stand out as being the ones looking up. It’s possible that they see more clearly what most New Yorkers take for granted: water towers. Those archaic looking wooden structures that grace the rooftops of almost every New York City building play an integral, though often overlooked, part of watering this urban center.

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They didn't just grow there

The recollections of an itinerant family of 'tankies' and their 284 water tower career in the postwar era.

download from 

http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/53/v53i04p130-141.pdf

Indian Inspiration

Painting No. 130, Water Tower
Stewart Indian School, Carson City, Nevada
8"x 8", oil on linen panel
September 1, 2011

Standing over the facility, like a giant sci-fi robot, the water tower is surrounded by trees and buildings. It's silvery exterior reflecting the local color. This is painting 6 of 10 in a series painted at the school. 

Source: http://jamesamckewfineart.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/water-tower.html

The Stewart Indian School in Carson City Nevada served as an off-reservation boarding school from 1890 through 1980, and its stone buildings are an icon of education and life for many American Indians in the West. After the school closed, the buildings were emptied and many became home to state offices. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is comprised of 83 buildings.

Tell me, where do you come from my Cotton Eyed To (wer)?

In 1915, when its population was about 1600, the city of Cotton Plant Arkansas USA was the birthplace of one of the greatest ever Americans, Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

A fine documentary recently shown on the BBC about Sister Rosetta opens with views of the water tower, bearing the proud name "CITY OF COTTON PLANT". It's a fairly ordinary water tower and it never supplied water to the home of this great American artist.

It turns out that the present steel water tower was built with funds from the PWA (Public Works Administration, an agency of Roosevelt's New Deal) in 1935. It replaced an earlier water tower which would have been serving the city at the time Sister Rosetta was born.

At the age of six she was taken by her evangelist mother Katie Bell to Chicago to join Roberts Temple, Church of God in Christ, where she developed her distinctive style of singing and guitar playing. 

At the age of 23 she left the church and went to New York to join the world of show business, signing with Decca Records. For the following 30 years she performed extensively to packed houses in the USA and subsequently Europe, before her death in 1973.

In 2008 the state governor of Pennsylvania declared that henceforth January 11th will be Sister Rosetta Tharpe Day in recognition of her remarkable musical legacy.

The present Cotton Plant water tower - beside the town's derelict one room jail - is being nominated to the National Register of Historic Places with local significance under Criterion C as a good example of a 1930s water tower. The Cotton Plant Water Tower is also being nominated to the National Register under Criterion A for its associations with the activities of the PWA in Woodruff County during the 1930s. The Cotton Plant Water Tower is being submitted to the National Register of Historic Places under the multiple-property listing “An Ambition to Be Preferred: New Deal Recovery Efforts and Architecture in Arkansas, 1933-1943.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Company noted in its first map of Cotton Plant that the small, eastern Arkansas city had a four inch main running a short distance along Main Street. This water main served eight one inch hydrants used solely for sprinkling the unpaved street. One water tower, sixty-three feet above ground, held 23,000 gallons of water to help keep the dust to a minimum in this quickly growing town. This first water tower was behind a blacksmith shop north of Main Street and west of Ammon Street in the middle of the block. Though the population, 900 in 1908, reached 1,661 by 1920, the city continued to maintain this simple water system and 23,000 gallon tank. More information from Arkansas Historic Preservation Program

Cotton Plant was first called Richmond and was sparsely settled as early as 1840. William Lynch was the first man to build a store in the area, settling here from Mississippi in 1846. After unsuccessfully seeking application for a post office by the name of Richmond, the town settled on Cotton Plant in 1852. Lynch’s store attracted others and soon the village became the center of economic activity in this relatively isolated part of Woodruff County. It was not until 1887 that the town was formally incorporated.

All the best towns have a museum in their water tower

Western Springs is a suburb of Chicago located in Cook County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2000 census, the village had a total population of 12,493. It is twinned with Rugeley, best known perhaps as the home of Rugeley B Power Station whose cooling towers dominate the Staffordshire landscape.

In November, 2007, BusinessWeek.com listed Western Springs second in a list of the 50 best places to raise children. The rankings were based on five factors, including school test scores, cost of living, recreational and cultural activities, number of schools and risk of crime. 

The Historic Water Tower was constructed in 1892 . On December 12, 1891, the village president at the time, Mr. Wickerson, sought the village's right to place a water tower on land that had been originally known as "Block A". On January 27,1892 Charles and Ruth Collins donated this land, "Block A" to the village of Western Springs.

The design and construction of the Tower was a collaboration between Benzette Williams and Edgar Williams of the firm of Williams and Williams (which later became known as MacRichie and Nichol) and Ethan Philbrick. All three were civil engineers and residents Western Springs. Benezette Williams and Ethan Philbrick eventually served as village presidents. The cost of the Tower combined with the sewer and pumping system as well as the pumping station was $79,119.10. 156 carloads of stone were ordered from the Chicago and Naperville Stone Company. Each stone was cut and shaped by hand on site. The Tower was constructed to be 112.5 feet high at its tallest point and 36.5 feet in diameter. The walls at its base are 6 feet thick and the original water tank held 133,000 gallons of water. The Tower itself served as the village offices, police department, jail and police magistrate court until 1968, when all were moved to a new administration building at 740 Hillgrove.

In 1991 a near disaster occured when the water tower museum was struck by lightning and caught fire.

More information is available from the Western Springs Historical Society website and

25 Moments In Western Springs History.

Alcatraz Island (1941)

BWTAS member, David Blackburn, has sent in these photographs of the water tower on the Alcatraz Island, taken from a tourist boat by a friend (click on images to reveal full size). The island has had many uses during its history, but it was during the period when it was being used as a federal prison, that the water tower was built in 1940/41. The tower consists of steel tank of 208,710 gallons (250,650 U.S. gallons) supported by six columns secured to concrete footings. The structure is 93 feet tall and is the only elevated fresh water storage facility on the island. The location is 37 degrees, 49 minutes, 34.18 seconds North, 122 degrees, 25 minutes and 19.56 seconds West.

Water tower tea cosy

Here at BWTAS we're somewhat mystified as to why, perhaps someone will explain, but we came across this neat film of crochet artist Robyn Love with the assistance of the ad agency  TAXI transforming a New York City water tower (one of those Rosenwach wooden ones) with a pencil tea-cosy as some sort of stunt for the Designers & Art Directors Awards in 2008. We love it, whatever it is.

Sheer fallacy

It is well understood by many members of BWTAS and the vistors to our art exhibitions that water towers are inspirational objects for artists and photographers but it is a first for us that we find a water tower has inspired work that might need a warning it is NSFW (that's Not Safe For Work). As this work as a postcard is sold in many of the Michigan city of Ypsilanti's finer gift shops, we think it's O.K. but if you dare to scroll down, you'll see what we mean.

See the original image here.

The post card is the work of Michgan based rock photographer Shela Palkoski who is a graduate of Eastern Michigan University and who has a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts & a Minor in Art History. She works as a Toolmaker Journeywoman for Ford Motor Company. She also does freelance photography and shoots rock concerts for Real Detroit weekly magazine. Her hobbies include art, music, concerts, traveling and fast cars. She obviously has a wicked sense of humour. Definitely going on the shortlist for the next BWTAS art show.

Shela told blogger Gaye Leonard who writes a terrific water tower fan blog Thirsty in Suburbia:

“I used to live across the street from the water tower and had to walk past it. I figure I’ve had a vision of that image for about five years, and I thought, ‘I’ve gotta do it before someone else does.’”

The image has the city's leaders squirming to respond diplomatically. You better read Gayle's very interesting blog entry for the rest of the story and all the great information about the tower itself.

Gayle is an enthusiastic reader of the BWTAS blog. We're absolutely delighted to find her.


BTW 'sheer fallacy' has nothing to do with the story, it's just the only pun I could think of that said something about legs in tights and a phall....

Glimpse of a Gilded Age

Washington Post - United States

Once home to a rebel of the du Pont family,
Nemours Mansion and Gardens in Wilmington,
Delaware has reopened after a three-year
renovation including this 8o foot water tower.

Click Here for Slide Show

Water tower turned into veterans' memorial

It seems appropriate on the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings to bring you this story:

Retired US Marine Howard Flexor moved to Dudley, Massachusetts USA two years ago. He settled in a beautiful home with a great view reaching as far as Connecticut. The only problem was the house sat directly across the street from the town's water tower (actually just a raised storage tank as far as we can tell, Ed.)

Howard, a Vietnam veteran, went to the Dudley Water Department and asked their permission to paint a special message on the tower out of his own pocket.

He says he wanted to make sure that veterans were not forgotten. The town agreed because it was a free paint job for the tank which would cost then $3000 otherwise and you can't argue against a case of Dudley Do-right (sorry).

We only wonder, with such a big canvas, why only paint a tiny part of it? We would guess his budget couldn't stretch to employing Hennig Mural Design who specialise in disguising or enhancing metal storage tanks with clever murals. Can we bring this firm to Buncefield?

NECN.COM Video Story

Delta Force

It may be only 50,000 gallons and made of rusted metal but it has an unusual double tank design. The 1904 Rio Vista water tower on the California Delta (near Sacremento, USA) is a such a well known landmark to river traffic that it has just been dimantled to become the centrepiece of a new development.

The SF Chronicle reports "city leaders hope a new 'Discover the Delta' center will draw visitors, jolt the local economy and brand the delta as a unique California destination on par with the redwoods, mountains and coast.

The nonprofit center will include a model of the delta, a wine tasting room, farmers' market, classrooms and a museum showcasing the agricultural and cultural history of the region. Organizers hope to break ground on the $5 million project this summer and open to the public by next year."

People from the Rio Vista community turned out in their hundreds to see the workers dismantle them 135 foot tower which will be restored before being moved to its new home across the river. The event was also opportunity for local schools and community groups to get involved creating exhibits celebrating the tower's iconic status.

Officially called the Dutra tower these days, the tower had previously been owned by the Rio Vista Canning and Packing Company, Del Monte (known in the UK for tinned fruit cocktail) and then Blackwelder Manufacturing. The agricultural purpose of the tower explains its double tank design; the lower tank was for drinking water, the upper tank powered a flume that transported asparagus for processing and packing. Ninety percent of the world's canned asparagus, mostly white asparagus, was packed here. In the mid-sixties, the tower began to show its age and sprang leaks and was taken out of service.

The Dutra company donated the tower to the project. We couldn't agree more with their choice for an eye-catching iconic landmark than a water tower.

Read the story from the San Francisco Chronicle

Read about the tower and the project with slideshow

Tower Opening in Saint Louis, Missouri USA

If you like getting high, the city of St. Louis is blessed with many places to do it. There's the Gateway Arch and the corinithan standpipe in Water Tower Park and the Compton Hill Water Tower which is now open to the public every Saturday from April to November 2009.


Now it's called a water tower but it is in fact a standpipe but we're not going to be too purist about this fine example of French Romanesque architecture. Once over 400 such water towers (& standpipes) punctuated the skylines of American cities and towns. St. Louis can claim three of the seven remaining in the United States. All St. Louis' water towers have been declared Historical Landmarks.

image from wikipedia

The Compton Hill Water Tower at Grand and Russell Boulevards was opened for service in 1899. At 179 feet, the towe dominates South Grand Boulevard. The tower had to be closed to the public in 1984 when it was discovered that asbestos surrounded the metal tank in the tower's core. For more than ten years the water tower stood untouched and deterioration took over.

More information about the tower here http://stlouis.missouri.org/comptonhill/tower.html

More info about the openings:


Tower Openings - The Water Tower and Park Preservation Society, Compton Hill Water Tower, Saint Louis Missouri

Another one bites the dust...

The historic Imperial Tobacco plant water tower in Greenville South Carolina USA has been pulled down after standing for 72 years. The tower had been destabilized by a fire that destroyed most of the empty complex on April 16, 2008.

After eight months of planning, project foreman Jimmy Davis of Biggs Brothers Construction spent several days choreographing the maneuver that toppled the tower.

More here:

Imperial Tobacco plant water tower pulled down - News Reflector.com

The Occult Tower

With an undeniable hold on popular imagination and inaccessibility adding an air of mystery to their purpose, it was only a matter of time before a water tower linked by rumour with the occult came to the attention of BWTAS.

Legend says that the water tower in Starin Park, Wisconsin USA was once a place for sinister gatherings and that a body was hung near or on the tower. More here. Cue a Twilight Zone music sting...

John Robinette

John Robinette is a Memphis artist who has been described as a painter of only three things: shacks, churches, and water towers. He is widely honoured and collected in the USA. He is amongst a pantheon of artists who have tackled the subject; Charles Demuth, Rachel Whiteread, Drew Leshko, Mark Beesley and Claude Pissarro, as well as the photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher who devoted many years to documenting wasserturm.

Seeking a Tribute to the Ordinary in a Water Tower

From the New York Times Hernando Mississippi (near Memphis TN) is seeking landmark status for its ordinary metal water tower. Given the slow decline in the use of these towers (see the East Hampton posting), this is not such a bad idea. The NYT article goes on to say many of the things that BWTAS points out are the benefits of water towers and why they are appreciated. You can read it there.

Gong forever

Melissa Pionzio, a journalist and blogger for the Hartford Courant in Conneticut USA, has reported the demolition of the Gong Bell water tower in swanky East Hampton CT. Local teenagers, doubtless driven by raging hormones, were often inspired to scale the tower to graffiti messages to the person of their desire. Resident Tracy Kemp added that the water tower lasted 25 years longer than Billy's declared love for her.

The loss of this tower was also recorded by a local photographer R J Phil who noted on his blog "I wonder how many people will even notice that it is gone? When you see something every day, it becomes a part of the landscape of the town; a symbol of the manufacturing history that once was...

At 1:30 today they held a "ribbon-cutting" to begin the demolition of the Gong Bell water tower. The Gong Bell Co. made toys with bells in them during the early and middle part of the 20th century, many of which are very collectible now. East Hampton was (and is) known as "Belltown, USA", due to the number of companies producing bells here beginning in the mid-1800's. The Bevin Bros. Mfg. Co. is the only one left in East Hampton (and the the US) now, still producing fine bells after over 150 years.I know that the tower is old and unsafe, I understand the liabilities involved - BUT - I would like to think that the ceremony is a send-off for the landmark, rather than a "good riddance" to something that once stood as a monument to manufacturing in East Hampton, and the US in general. Having grown up here and seeing the tower every day, I will miss it, for it is one more thing from East Hampton's past that has gone the way of the bulldozer. The tower has looked over our town for almost 80 years and has seen a great deal of history come and go - the last train through in 1964, the fire in 1973 that burned down the Gong Bell factory and the commercial expansion and residential development that changes forever the small towns these sentinels protected. Rest in peace. "

Over 30 bell foundries once existed in East Hampton. Gong Bell Manufacturing Company is credited with inventing the first toy telephone and the first foot bell ever used.

The tower had been maintained for fire safety after the factory had closed but the town council now believe "the tower is no longer necessary for fire suppression," said town council chair Melissa Engel in a speech at the demolition ceremony. "Because we now rely on modern day pumps."

It has to be asked, as it can be shown, what if these electric pumps fail? The widespread flooding in the UK in 2008 knocked out electricity substations that drove water pumping stations, causing complete havoc in fire prevention and public health. The beauty of water towers is that gravity never fails to deliver water to anywhere below where it is stored.