2. Water Tower

Today, most people know about the old silo that stands leaning at an angle along Main Street north of town. It looks like it might fall down someday. Well, in the winter of 1948, a similar structure, only much taller, did fall down.

For years there was a wooden, 15,000-gallon water tower that stood on McLemore Avenue. In the summer there was an icehouse there, where people gathered to get a block of ice for 10 to 15 cents and gossip on hot nights in the cool icehouse, according to a story told in Spring Hill: Everybody Has a Story.

But in the winter of 1948, ice would be the water tower’s downfall. Icicles formed on it and eventually weighed it down so much that it collapsed.

In another water-related story, for years until well past 1960, Spring Hill’s water supply came from a lake by the Tennessee Children’s Home. According to a story told by Louise Jackson, “when the weather was dry, you would not be surprised to get bits of moss and other particles through your lines.”

By the ’70s, however, Spring Hill was hooked up to Columbia’s city water, and no one had to worry about moss in their coffee.

Share on Facebook

Tweet