County of site: Jefferson County
Location of site: Michigan Ave., (seen on I-55), Arnold
"If there's one Jefferson County landmark you can't miss when you're driving by on busy Interstate 55, it's the massive 182-foot water tower with the bold letters on top proclaiming "ARNOLD."
"Some call it garish or ugly. "They've called it a big flashlight, or worse," says Mary Kennedy, manager of Public Water Supply District No. 1 of northern Jefferson County. But there's no doubt the 23-year-old water tower has served its purpose, she adds. It has provided a dependable reservoir and good water pressure for the growing city of Arnold and her water district, which serves about 24,000 customers in Arnold and a few nearby areas.
"Only last year, when the tower was drained for several months while it was cleaned, patched and repainted, was its service to the area interrupted for a lengthy period. During that time, the water district's needs were met by its two other reservoirs on Tenbrook and Lonedell roads in the Arnold area with more water purchased from St. Louis County as needed.
"The district still buys water from St. Louis County. Even so, the Arnold water tower has made those purchases less frequent with its million-gallon storage capacity, Kennedy says.
"The rapidly growing water district served only 17,000 customers when the water tower was built in 1976. Kennedy says district officials at the time planned wisely for the future because the tower's storage capacity still helps the district more than meet its needs. "And it has given us a stable water pressure throughout the district for years, " she says.
"The water tower was built by Pittsburgh-Des Moines Co. and filled at a cost of nearly $800,000.
"Inside the tower's corrugated metal support structure, a 6-foot-in-diameter pipe rises 140 feet to the bowl holding the water. At the base of the tower is the office of Mike Siedler, maintenance construction supervisor for the water district.
"We've got two rooms and a locker room" inside the tower's metal exterior, he says.
"The building of the tower was financed from part of a bond issue approved a decade earlier by voters in the district. Raymond Tucker, the water district manager in the 1970s, said that at the time district officials carefully assessed their future needs before deciding to build what was called a steel hydro pillar to become Arnold's new water tower.
"Newspaper accounts showed that Tucker monitored the building of the tower and wanted to see the view from the top when it was finished. But he died of a heart attack before the job was done.
"His successors with the district have seen to the smooth operations at the water tower ever since.
"Siedler says he's sorry Tucker didn't live to see the fulfillment of his dream from the top of the tower. "I've been up there a few times, and it's a heck of a view," Siedler says. "You can see a long, long way."
"He said Ameren UE's power plant across the Meramec River in south St. Louis County looked close enough to touch from atop the Arnold water tower.
"Over the years, the tower became such a landmark that in the late 1980s the Arnold City Council decided to name the commercial development that grew up in the shadow of the tower Water Tower Place.
"And proving they had a sense of humor, council members also voted to name the new street leading up to Water Tower Place as Michigan Avenue.
"Another, better-known Michigan Avenue in Chicago runs in front of a famous high-rise shopping center, Water Tower Place, and also in front of that city's historic 1800s water tower.
"When the Arnold water tower was being refurbished and repainted in its original light-green color last year, the structure periodically was encased in a removable plastic capsule. Mary Kennedy says that was done to contain the debris during the sandblasting required to remove the old paint and corrosion.
"It was the only major refurbishing in the tower's history. The work was done under a $565,000 contract awarded to Hartman-Walsh Painting Co. of St. Louis. Consulting engineers from Tank Industry Consultants Inc. of Pittsburgh supervised the job under a separate hourly contract.
"The entire restoration project cost nearly $1 million. Kennedy says she hopes it will be another 20 years before any more major work is needed on the water tower.
"Roy Sippel, one of the early settlers of the Arnold area in the 1930s, told the Post-Dispatch nearly 20 years ago that when he first moved to the area there was much resistance to any kind of organized water-supply system.
"One night at Soulard School (in Arnold) a bunch of people showed up at a meeting to decide whether to drill a well so kids could have water and toilet facilities instead of an outhouse and rain barrel, " Sippel recalled. "Well, some of the new people (who had moved to Arnold) from St. Louis were insisting they drill a well, and one old-timer said his kids drank out of a rain barrel and dipper, and if it was good enough for them, it would be good enough for the new people."
"Yet the area was growing even then, and the new well soon went in.
"As more and more people moved to Arnold over the years, the need for a water district eventually became apparent, so Public Water Supply District No. 1 was chartered and organized in 1959.
"It used a couple of smaller water towers for several years before the big tower looming over Interstate 55 was built."
~ St Louis Post-Dispatch, Robert J. Kelly, Sept. 20 1999
Then the city painted it blue...and all the screaming began:
The story about the painted the wrong color event in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
And the Blog you did not want... Jefferson County Penknife
and another opinion on youtube petro 62