Historic Water Towers of North Carolina

Historic Water Towers of North Carolina

Early 20th century water towers are relics from the state's post-Reconstruction industrialization and urbanization. Skeletal in profile, often rusting, these disused structures tower over the rubble of lost factories or loom above the rooftops of identical mill houses. The water towers exhibit a number of bygone engineering practices from the 19th and 20th centuries, including the use of hot-riveted connections, built-up beams, and lead paint--features also found in other functional structures such as bridges. Ornamentation is almost entirely avoided; the extent of the decoration on these utilitarian structures is often the corporate logo painted on the tank face. The tanks are cylindrical, comprised of riveted panels, and with conical roofs. While aesthetics was clearly not an important aspect of their construction, their intricacy in design makes them more interesting to look at than the "steel mushrooms" that have supplanted them on the landscape. Fortunately, despite loss of function, many of these towers remain in towns across the state, serving as records of early 20th century engineering and industry. Below is a compilation of various old water towers across the state.

Alamance County

Glencoe Mill Water Tower No. 1

Glencoe is an unincorporated mill community in northern Alamance County along the Haw River. Today the mill housing and support buildings have been preserved, while the textile mill itself awaits reuse. Water Tower Number One, the more significant of the two in the village, is located on the opposite side of the street from the mill. According to an interpretive sign at the village, the tower was built in 1905 by the Chicago Bridge and Iron Works. It was constructed to feed a fire sprinkler system inside the mill, supplementing a tank that was once on top of the building. 20th century bridge construction techniques are utilized with this structure: beams stitched together with V-lacing, pin-connected bracing, and hot-riveted gusset plate connections. The structure has been recently repainted black, and some rivets have been replaced with welds. The structure's map coordinates are: 36° 8'19.53"N, 79°25'39.55"W.

Glencoe Mill Water Tower No. 2

Water Tower Number Two is located to the west of the textile mill. It is across the street from the former dye plant, and may have been connected to the sprinklers inside this building. As on the first tower, all connections are made with rivets. The bracing consists of perpendicular rods that feature turnbuckles so that tension can be adjusted. Unlike the first tower, it does not utilize built-up beams for the supports and horizontal members, but instead employs solid L-beams manufactured by the Phoenix Iron Works. Its map coordinates are: 36° 8'22.40"N, 79°25'44.01"W.

Rowan County

North Carolina Finishing Company Twin Towers, East Spencer

These identical water towers stand over the ruins of the old North Carolina Finishing Plant, later known as the ColorTex Plant. In recent years the plant was notorious for the way in which it closed: the gates were merely shut without warning, and the greedy company subsequently attempted to avoid paying the laid-off workers the wages and benefits that they were owed. Today the former plan is an ugly pile of rubble, symbolic of the even uglier process of deindustrialization in North Carolina. However, the water towers were not removed, and seem very much out of place without the anchor of the factory.

The towers themselves follow the standard design of the early 20th century, including riveted structural connections and v-laced supports. The exteriors of the tanks are constructed of riveted panels, and feature a conical roof. Of the two structures, the front one has a higher degree of historical integrity, with its original structural components being largely intact. The rear tower has had its sway bracing modified, with some of the steel roads having been replaced with heavier modern beams. The pipe on the rear structure is also enclosed in a protective sleeves that is of modern welded construction.