MO towers and Historic St. Louis towers - May 2015

Owen had a conference in St. Louis so we went to Missouri early to see my mom. These pictures are from the return trip to Saint Louis from Columbia along I-70. Many of these were taken out of the car window which as you know isn't my preferred method:( But we spent a great deal of time at the historic ones we found in St. Louis which are described below in more detail. A big shout out to Owen for doing the water tower research before we left!

The village of Kingdom City, MO

New Florence, MO

High Hill, MO

There are three historic water towers in St. Louis. The Compton Water Tower is in a beautiful park. It was designed in 1897 and was a highlight for visitors to the St. Louis 1904 World's Fair. It was taken out of use as a standpipe in 1929 but was used as a support for the Water Division's dispatch antennae until 1984. It was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and a large restoration project was completed on it in 1999. It is open for tours on Saturdays during the summer but we missed out. Next time!

Compton Water Tower in St. Louis with Mom and Owen 

Compton water tower in St. Louis

The other two towers (aka standpipes) are called the Grand Avenue (white) water tower and the Bissell Street (red) water tower. They are very close to each other in small roundabouts. I was actually able to get a picture with them both in it but it wasn't my best so I left it out. The white tower is the oldest of the 3. It was built in 1871 and is a Corinthian column. The red tower was built in 1885 and is in the Hyde Park City Historic District.

I am writing this post more than 3 years after this trip but if you'll remember in August of 2014 there were riots in Ferguson, MO that began after a fatal shooting of African American Michael Brown by a white police officer. Ferguson isn't far from these watertowers and I remember seeing a sign propped up against the fence of the white watertower that said, "We must stop killing each other". It was a somber moment and it saddens me that so many years later I am still concerned, overwhelmed and unsure of how to fix this country's violence and lack of civility.

Red standpipe

White standpipe

After the trip, my mom went back and painted me a beautiful watercolor of all 3 towers.

Work Trip (AFF) - MA and CT - February 2015

I was fortunate, when I worked at the American Forest Foundation (AFF), to travel to New England frequently for my projects. Digging back through my calendar, now 3-years later, I went to Massachusetts and Connecticut in the cold, snowy, winter for a couple of meetings. One meeting was an Estate Planning workshop hosted by our partner there, the New England Forestry Foundation. The other meeting was a Tools for Engaging Landowners Effectively (TELE) meeting at Harvard Forest.

The best thing about these visits is that I got to hang out with my friend Alexandra, my uncle, and my cousins, all who live in the Hartford area. Alex graciously housed me multiple times over the years and this trip, in particular, was wonderful because I was still recovering from surgery.

I am trying to remember why I went to Southington, CT which is south of Hartford. I may have met an old Keep America Beautiful colleague who lived down that way. I am starting to remember lunch at a pizza place ...

Southington, CT

By the looks of these plows, I just missed a pretty big snow thankfully. This no-descript water tower was in the parking lot of the mall where I met my family for dinner.

Manchester, MA

On my way to Sturbridge, MA, which is where I would often stay, I passed this beautiful old mill on  I-84. I stopped and got this great wintery picture. I just read up on the history of this place - Talcottville historic district within Vernon, CT. It was such a cute little historic area. I highly recommend a drive-by.

Talcottville historic district, Vernon, CT

 I saw the most picture-perfect scene on my way to the Harvard Forest just outside the University of MA-Amherst in the small town of Pelham. The white church, white water tower, and white snow were beautiful!

Pelham, MA

Tenleytown neighborhood/Fort Reno - Washington, DC - January 2015

One beautiful weekend afternoon we went water tower hunting in DC. There are not many but we found a historic tower in the Tenleytown neighborhood. This area is the highest point in DC at 409 feet above sea level. Because of that, it was turned into a fort during the Civil War. Lincoln visited the fort on July 11, 1864, and later that day Confederate troops advanced on it from the north. Calvary from the fort engaged the advancing enemy and the fort's cannons shelled the enemy nearly four miles away. Read more here on page 11 from Cultural DC.

Thirty years after this fight the city removed the fort remnants and constructed an underground water reservoir and the red-brick water tower. It took some digging but I read that the sandstone castle is the pumping station.

Water tower and pumping station (castle)

However, you'll notice three structures on the hill in the picture below - a second red-brick tower with white on top (far left). Believe it or not, that is actually a cold-war era communications tower called "cartwheel" meant to look like a water tower. It is now operated by the Federal Aviation Administration for civil communication needs. Read more here. 

Tower on far left is a cold-war communications tower

RV trip to my sisters - Part 3 - South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama - December 2014

This is going to be a 3 part post.

Owen and I drove from Washington, DC to Atlanta, GA where we picked up an RV and then drove on to West Monroe, LA to see my sister and her family. See our route here. As you will see from the pictures it RAINED the whole time.

Near the end of the trip, the RV had had enough of the rain and just couldn't keep it outside anymore, so we started to get rained on inside the RV. Needless to say, the last night in the RV was spent at a cheap motel instead. Did I mention we had our 2 dogs with us too?

After Atlanta, we drove through Alabama to get to Mississippi and then onto Louisiana. I have a number of MS and LA pictures so we didn't take any in those states but we did in Alabama. Don't confuse Selma, AL with Selma, NC.

Woodstock, AL - Front

Woodstock, AL - Back

Selma, AL - Slogan - "A nice place to live"

Demopolis, AL

I 20-59 Industrial Park

RV trip to my sisters - Part 2 - South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama - December 2014

This is going to be a 3 part post.

Owen and I drove from Washington, DC to Atlanta, GA where we picked up an RV and then drove on to West Monroe, LA to see my sister and her family. See our route here. As you will see from the pictures it RAINED the whole time.

We left SC and drove onto Atlanta. If you didn't know, North Augusta is "South Carolina's Riverfront". If you know where Walker Exhaust Manufacturing is in GA please comment. That is one issue with me posting things 4 years later, my memory isn't great.

North Augusta, SC (actually)

Walker Exhaust Manufacturing, Somewhere in GA

 In Atlanta,we picked up the RV. We rented one through Cruise America. This was our second time doing it and we moved up to a 24 ft. RV.

Right outside the RV pick-up place we saw this "God Bless America" water tower in Atlanta. Then we saw a great Chick-Fil-A water tower. We, unfortunately, couldn't stop to get a good picture and the one I took from the RV window was bad. I just did some research and evidently, this water tower is changed pretty regularly by Chick-Fil-A. See and read more about it.

God Bless America, Atlanta, GA

See my other Atlanta water tower posts here.

RV trip to my sisters - Part 1 - South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama - December 2014

This is going to be a 3 part post.

Owen and I drove from Washington, DC to Atlanta, GA where we picked up an RV and then drove on to West Monroe, LA to see my sister and her family. See our route here. As you will see from the pictures it RAINED the whole time.

I didn't take any pictures in VA or NC. I have so many from NC already which you can peruse on this blog. So the pictures start in SC. The small town of McBee, SC had 3 water towers. One for the town, one for a rural water district and one for the AO Smith Water Heater plant (unfortunately the pic didn't come out well). It has a population of 867 people! As we drive the back roads looking for water towers I always wonder, what do people do in these small towns for a living? Is the large rural water tower for agriculture? If anyone knows, please comment. Also, I tried to figure out what the graphic on the Camden, SC water tower is and couldn't figure it out. If anyone knows, please comment.

McBee, SC 

Alligator Rural Water, McBee, SC 

Bethune, SC

Camden, SC.