Thursday, June 29, 2006
There's a cocktail in your hand, the breeze is easy, the company is pleasant and the view from the Tsunami terrace is even better. You look out across the riverfront landscape and--what is that giant, riveted obelisk escalating across the street with the subtlety of a Gemini rocket on a launch pad?
The structure is the city's first water tower, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Baton Rouge Waterworks Company Standpipe. Today's standpipes are made of steel, but back in 1888 this one was fashioned from wrought iron--for the ginormous sum of $7,765--to store drinking water and provide firefighting service for the area.
It operated for 75 years until technological advances made all 110-feet of it obsolete in 1963. Soon after, city officials lobbied for the standpipe's protection on the National Register, and in 1974, it was officially added as a "cultural resource worthy of preservation."
"It was the second Louisiana example of engineering skill placed on the register," says Baton Rouge Water president Pat Kerr. "Bayou Plaquemine and its locks was the first."
Ten Baton Rouge sites are listed on the National Registry, including the Audubon Plantation House, the Beauregard Town Historic District and Baton Rouge High School.
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