At the water tower
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| The Fort Thomas Water Tower | This is easily the most common of all Fort Thomas postcards, maybe the most common of all Northern Kentucky cards. |
| To keep yourself oriented in regard to where the photographer was standing when some of these shots were taken - not always easy - keep in mind that the tower has a door and a large plaque on the west (Ft. Thomas Avenue) side. Also, keep in mind that the “windows” of the tower (they're actually just vertical slits) are higher on the east (Fort side) and west, street side, (...well, OK, avenue side). They're lower on the northern and southern sides. |
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Miscellaneous Tower Images |
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| Tower Construction from a Facebook post by David Mahaney |
The Tower |
Art by Beverly Herschel
from Gathering Places, by her and Sue Ann Painter
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| “Water Tower, Fort Thomas, Cincinnati, O.” 1909 |
Water Tower and Main Avenue, 1908 |
| Miss Lulie Crain, R.R. #1, Butler, KY “Hello Girlie, Do you object to my sending you a card occasionally? How are you now? Come down and see me sometime. I had a fine time while I was home but you never came over.” Why? With Love, EMC |
To C. J. Codlina, North Collins, NY “Received your card and hope you will like this one.” Mrs. Kurchin, Cov. Ky. |
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all undated
The Tower
from a Facebook post by Johannah Moran
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| Base of the Tower, 1931 | 1904 | 1908 |
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| Another “Ft. Thomas Water Tower, Cincinnati, O.” |
“Bronze Tablet in Memory of the Glorious Conduct in Battle of the U.S. Sixth Infantry, and captured Spanish Cannon, Fort Thomas, Kentucky” |
A sketch by Caroline Williams |
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The water tower is 102 feet high, and has a standpipe inside it which could contain 100,000 gallons of water from the Kenton County Water District reservoirs (just across Fort Thomas Avenue from it). The blocks at the base are granite, but the rest of the tower is limestone. The material was cut near Carntown, and barged up the river, and up the hill by soldier “volunteers.” The base is 23.5 feet square. It cost $10,995 when it was built in 1890. The project engineer was Patrick Rooney of Cincinnati. The contractor was Henry Schriver, who not only built many of the other Fort buildings, but many other buildings in Fort Thomas and Campbell County. . . . and it's still a working water tower. |
Relic of Spanish-American War, Fort Thomas
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| Close-ups of the etching/engraving on the cannons. |
If you've ever wondered what those tablets on the tower said. . . |
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| More about the cannons, here. | More on Colonel Harry Clay Egbert | ||
A new items about the dedication of the tablets are here and here.
And last but not least, what's the mystery behind that number
“16” on
the door of the tower?? Find out here.
Contemporary aerial footage, from a drone, of Tower Park
