Sulphur Springs Water Tower is a landmark of Tampa

Tâmpa

Tâmpa may refer to several villages in Romania:* Tâmpa, a village in Băcia Commune, Hunedoara County* Tâmpa, a village in Miercurea Nirajului, Mureş County* Tâmpa, a mountain in Braşov city...

, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

. It stands 214 feet (65.2 m) tall, with a foundation 45 feet (13.7 m) deep which makes it visible from nearby Interstate 275

Interstate 275 (Florida)

Interstate 275 in Florida serves the Tampa Bay metropolitan area, measuring 60.696 miles in length. The southern terminus is I-75 near Palmetto, just five miles east of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, a toll bridge crossing Tampa Bay. The highway passes through St...

 and much of the rest of Sulphur Springs. It's located in the historic district of Sulphur Springs

Sulphur Springs, Tampa, Florida

Sulphur Springs is a neighborhood and district located within the city limits of Tampa, Florida. As of the 2000 census, the neighborhood had a population of 6,308. - Description :...

.

Maritime lore

Maritime lore maintains that during the time of early European explorers there existed a nautical lighthouse here to guide European ocean frigates from the Bay up through Hillsborough River to replenish their fresh water tanks from the local springs. When the tide came in, ships would come in from Hillsborough Bay up the river to the various springs and artesian wells. The original lighthouse at this location also served as a landmark on pirate and buccaneer treasure maps. There are several pirate-marked trees in the vicinity.A dead pirate still looms in the area according to some old timers.

Modern history

The water tower was built in 1927 by Grover Poole for realtor and developer Josiah T. Richardson to supply adequate water pressure to the Sulphur Springs Hotel and Apartments and Mave's Arcade Richardson had developed next to Sulphur Spring with plans to expand the resort spa, alligator farm tourist attraction, and other enterprises. Mave's Arcade occupied the first floor of the hotel building and was the first shopping mall in Florida.

Richardson mortgaged the entire resort ($180,000 at the time) to finance the construction of the tower. However, in 1933, with the sabotage and collapse of the Tampa Electric Company dam that ripped through downtown Tampa during the Depression (draining cow pasture land that had been inconveniently flooded by the dam's construction), the arcade was heavily damaged, the businesses in the arcade failed, and Richardson lost everything.

From construction until 1971, the water tower happily operated as a private water company piping artesian well water to commercial and residential customers in the immediate vicinity. The tower is built over the opening of an artesian well and the water well and pumps are located under the tower itself. Another building was on the property which housed fluoridation and filtering equipment when the water company was in business piping artesian well water directly to customers. Artesian well water is rich in minerals, better tasting than other natural untreated waters and its health benefits are incalculable. In 1971 the owner of the water company and tower was "The Estate of J.F. Hendrick" (several beneficiaries under his will including surviving relatives). They were forced by the City of Tampa in 1971 to cease water piping operations so that the City's water utility company could maintain a monopoly over the business of piping water to citizens.

In the 1970s it was home to the Tower Drive-In theater; at one time it was defaced with significant amounts of graffiti

Graffiti

Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....

, most notably "look out for nuns". An aircraft warning light

Aircraft warning lights

Aircraft warning lights are high-intensity lighting devices that are attached to tall structures and are used as collision avoidance measures. Such devices make structures more visible to passing aircraft and are usually used at night, although they may be used during the day as well...

 atop the tower (since removed) was said to have interfered with movie viewing. The screen was backed against the river so people across the river could not view the movie screen without paying admission. All remnants of the drive-in theatre have been removed except for some sea-shell dredgings that were used to pave the theatre's car aisles.

In the mid-1980s there was a move to develop the property as a condominium or high-end apartment complext, with the tower preserved as its centerpiece. Ultimately, the project fell through. In 1989 the tower was restored: it was pressure washed and painted with 150 gallons of "graffiti proof paint" donated by Sherwin-Williams Co. with labor donated by Service Painting Corp.

2002 saw a bid by a large chain drugstore to build on the site, but public outcry killed the project. The site was subsequently purchased by the City of Tampa who in 2005 installed lights for nighttime illumination. In what is now called River Tower Park, there is a limited one-lane access road off Bird Street, no facilities and no parking lot. The River Walkway decking is planned to pass under the tower.

Architecture

The structure is constructed from poured cement

Cement

In the most general sense of the word, a cement is a binder, a substance that sets and hardens independently, and can bind other materials together. The word "cement" traces to the Romans, who used the term opus caementicium to describe masonry resembling modern concrete that was made from crushed...

 using railroad rails for "rebar

Rebar

A rebar , also known as reinforcing steel, reinforcement steel, rerod, or a deformed bar, is a common steel bar, and is commonly used as a tensioning device in reinforced concrete and reinforced masonry structures holding the concrete in compression...

"; the walls are eight inches (203 mm) thick with a buttressed base on solid rock. "Concrete was poured into forms that were raised by yokes and jacks -- 10 feet (3 m) went up a day. The tower rests on rock, has cantilever foundation, and with the buttresses will be rather a difficult job to ever destroy," wrote Poole. When it was operational it stored 200,000 gallons of water pumped up from the nearby artesian springs. The water tank occupies the upper quarter of the cylindrical tower while seven floors, one room per floor, constitute the lower three quarters. Original construction included an electric passenger elevator.

External links

• Floridian: Tower of Terror, St. Petersburg Times
  St. Petersburg Times
  The St. Petersburg Times is a United States newspaper. It is one of two major publications serving the Tampa Bay Area, the other being The Tampa Tribune, which the Times tops in both circulation and readership. Based in St...