Formerly known as "Creepy-chusetts, Strange-chusetts".

Friday, January 25, 2013

Water towers, Easthampton


While I was exploring an abandoned textile mill in Easthamtpton, I found those two water towers by a rail-trail!

To be precise, three water towers: 



 Looking at Mt. Tom

The one on the right in the above picture first caught my attention. It seems to be still in use for a factory or storage adjacent to the abandoned mill. Doesn't the cone shaped roof of the water tower remind you the one in NYC? I'd been to the rail-trail last summer but the water tower still amazed me.


I just looked on my left, and here they were! Two more water towers. I hadn't noticed those structures last summer because the wood was so dense with leaves. Even I noticed it during the summer I wouldn't came close to there after my Lyme disease mayhem. Winter is the best time for the exploration.


I guess this rusty red iron water tower is a later addition. Is it still in use?


The other one is made of wood! I first thought it's a tree house (totally random thought, as usual, but wouldn't be great?) Look at this, it's crooked. Will this structure survive this winter? It'll collapse anytime soon, so don't came close to this!

And don't even think about climbing up this awesome ladder!!

It's like a huge bathtub on top of a sailing ship mast!?

What clicked me while I was looking at the wooden water tower was a "mystery" tower in Hillcrest Cemetery where patients at the Grafton State Hospital were buried.

Water tower @ Hillcrest Cemetery

 The stone-made tower at the cemetery brought a fair amount of discussion on the web speculating the original use of the tower. The guess ranged from a watchtower during the Civil War to an Irish Round Tower commemorating the Irish immigrants buried in the cemetery.

Interior of Hillcrest Cemetery water tower

The mystery was eventually solved that the stone tower at the cemetery was a remain of a water tower built in the early 20th century. The wooden tank surrounded by the stone wall collapsed after the years of disuse, creating a mystery to this day. I pictured the stone tower at Hillcrest Cemetery must have encased a barrel like this crumbling wooden water tower in Easthampton.


One mystery of a totally random structure is solved. But there is one more mystery.

Whose water tower is it? Was it for the abandoned mill adjacent to or for a function related to a disused railway? 


Locate Water towers, Easthampton @ Google Map


2 comments:

  1. Hi Dave,

    Excuse my late reply! Thanks for the comment. There was much more cool stuff next to the towers, hope I put my act together to make it to a post!

    Shuko

    ReplyDelete