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Water Tower Coming Down

Our neighbor, Paul G, is documenting the removal of the old water tower and taking some awesome pictures along the way.

It looks like it will be a slow process due to the extent of rebar and wiring in the cement. 
 
 Wish we could see what it was like inside! (Please don’t, unless you work with the crew)

26 comments

lanny 01/18/2018 at 3:22 PM

…and got to love the dentil molding around the top of the new tower. A fitting nod to the neighborhood!

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Eric S. Huffstutler 01/18/2018 at 8:46 PM

@1 lanny… I noted that dental molding detail as well. Glad they did it to help “fit in”.

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SA Chaplin 01/19/2018 at 8:24 AM

I’d be in favor of some murals on the new water tower — like some of the ones we see around the city.

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Eric S. Huffstutler 01/19/2018 at 1:31 PM

@3 SA Chaplin… enough of the “artist” graffiti crap on every building and structure. It is overkill and unattractive. Remind me of ghetto urban city.

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Kelly 01/19/2018 at 3:13 PM

@SA Chaplin, I think a mural would awesome! Something to spruce the thing up.

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Daniil 01/20/2018 at 8:20 AM

I would like to believe that the dentil moulding on the new tower was installed ironically…

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Jaclyn 01/20/2018 at 9:37 PM

Kelly—Couldn’t agree more!!! Would love to see a mural on the water tower! How can we make this happen?

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BAF 01/21/2018 at 11:47 PM

@4 Eric:

I completely agree. Most of the murals around town are bad and garish. With many of them you may as well as hand a tagger a can of spray paint to get a similar result. We don’t need more of the unsightly things.

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Eric S. Huffstutler 01/22/2018 at 6:56 PM

@8 BAF Thanks!

We are supposed to represent historic 19th-century architecture and very seriously doubt they had so-called murals spray painted everywhere looking like abandoned buildings in innercity Chicago or Detroit. Is it on buildings in Colonial Williamsburg? Enough is enough with destroying the old brick and concrete on structures. You know once painted it is next to impossible to get it off if a future owner doesn’t want it and an expensive extra expense to do so.

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J 01/23/2018 at 6:46 PM

What’s unattractive is the use of “ghetto” in this thread. Don’t do it. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/04/27/306829915/segregated-from-its-history-how-ghetto-lost-its-meaning

Too late on the murals. There’s more important things for you to complain about. Though I think we should all consider wearing 19th century clothing, riding horses instead of cars, getting rid of our central air, et al., to make this a truly 19th century neighborhood. Who’s with me?! Going to Change.org to start a petition.

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Eric S. Huffstutler 01/27/2018 at 2:16 PM

@10 J

The word “ghetto” may not be in your vernacular but it is still a viable term used often today in the context that was mentioned in the link you provided (in reference to a Busta Rhymes lyric) “You surviving in the ghetto,…you can make it anywhere.” The author stated, “…they reduce ghetto life to poverty and poor behavior.” There are plenty of current songs with lyrics and titles using the word ghetto in them as well as people using it in conversation. Well, what is probably called Street Art is associated with “poor behavior” and concentrated in areas of “poverty”. Is that the impression you want to give tourists and visitors about Richmond? So-called art, seen block by block, building by building within the inner cities? Crap that obscures the real beauty of a building and its architectural features? To make them look like a freakin’ circus or some post-apocalyptic landscape?

http://www.inenart.eu/wp-content/uploads/2012/2014/05/5Pointz-side.jpg

https://sternrockwell.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/5pointz_home_banner_1.jpg?w=960

No, a person doesn’t have to live like the 19th Century to appreciate it. As I have said over and over, when someone moves into a historical and protected area, you “go with the flow” because it is expected. When you buy into such an area, you should already have an understanding and appreciation of what you are moving into. The community has spent 60-years of blood, sweat, and tears (also a boatload of money) to maintain the integrity of the look and feel of our historic neighborhoods. Again, as I provided figures for in the past, is only a small corner of Richmond – not the entire city and so, how hard would it be to maintain? And if a person doesn’t appreciate 19th-century architecture and preserving it, then there are plenty of other places to move to that fits their lifestyle better. Richmond is full of history and Church Hill one of the oldest communities in the country. Why is it so hard to embrace and promote it?

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