Of water towers, old buildings and other roadside stuff

lee4hmz · 2013-10-09 19:10:29

I've been posting a lot about this in the "Photos of mundane things" thread, and I feel like I'm kind of cluttering it, so I'll post all the results of my following roads across the US here.

I don't have anything interesting at the moment (I'm currently following US 30 across the country, and just left Pocatello, ID), so for now, have a water tower with a smiley face on it. :D

Imipolex G · 2013-10-09 19:14:00

she looks happy

lee4hmz · 2013-10-10 19:41:14

http://www.insidenova.com/news/local/manassas/iconic-manassas-water-tower-to-be-removed/article_ff87fedc-2fc9-11e3-984a-001a4bcf887a.html

:(

Anonus · 2013-10-10 19:52:13

whatever they do, I hope they don't fuck up the lettering if they do restore it

glennmagusharvey · 2013-10-10 20:50:11

We need a thread about water towers whose font is so obnoxious they had to reroute the roads so that travelers wouldn't see it.

lee4hmz · 2013-10-10 20:59:58

There's a water tower labeled in Brush Script somewhere on the other thread...XD

lee4hmz · 2013-10-12 02:32:20

One of the things that intrigues me about these cross-country map treks is just how many of these tiny Plains towns have no industry left at all besides farming.

Some former commercial buildings in Bushnell, NE.

What looks like the old center of town...an abandoned bar, and a few abandoned stores.

The post office and the town hall, the only signs of commerce or government I could find.

The town water tower, in surprisingly good shape for a place that looks like a ghost town.

lee4hmz · 2013-10-12 03:16:39

Behold: The Potter State Bank of Potter, Also Potter

Hehehe, Rick Rolls Ins.

Princess Alice · 2013-10-12 03:18:49

^^ Whoa, it's like a modern-day ghost town. That's kinda neat.

lee4hmz · 2013-10-12 03:30:56

Another commercial area that's long since been abandoned. Dig the vintage Squirt sign!

The school looks like it's in better shape, though.

Princess Alice · 2013-10-12 03:56:14

Mildly amusing thing: Gee, I wonder why this crossing is marked "EXEMPT".

lee4hmz · 2013-10-12 03:57:47

Heh, around here you'd usually see a crosswalk instead of a crossbuck, at least along the W&OD Trail.

Princess Alice · 2013-10-12 04:06:21

Rail-trail crosswalks always seemed distinct to me, in that they somehow look subtly different from typical suburban crosswalks...but I can't quite put my finger on it.

Princess Alice · 2013-10-12 14:51:11

An old Griswold crossing signal: that weird empty space would have originally held a stop sign that turned to face the road when a train was detected.

Unfortunately, most of these still in existence have, like this one, had their stop signs removed for one reason or another.

Vriska · 2013-10-12 15:12:07

"water tower" always makes me think of the Animaniacs.

Also there are some cool railroad tracks around here but I never have my camera when I'm near there.

lee4hmz · 2013-10-13 03:48:58

Oh wow, a standalone JCPenney that's a real store, not just a catalog store.

Princess Alice · 2013-10-13 03:57:28

Ooh, neat!

Salix Babylonika · 2013-10-13 04:04:48

heheh, there's a Yarn Basket near there.

lee4hmz · 2013-10-13 04:11:24

Yarn basket?

Oh, and hey, here's another one of those weird PDM tanks.

Salix Babylonika · 2013-10-13 04:17:36

there's a store called Yarn Basket down the street.

lee4hmz · 2013-10-13 04:18:12

Ah, okay.

lee4hmz · 2013-10-13 23:57:03

So anyway, I was flipping through channels earlier, and what did I find on PBS? "A Drive Down the Lincoln Highway." XD

I'll watch it later, it's almost my bedtime.

Princess Alice · 2013-10-14 00:54:54

You know, there's at least one rest area off US 30 in Ohio that has a sign reading "US 30: Abraham Lincoln Memorial Highway."

Which is kind of hilarious because it's off a modern freeway portion of US 30 that was obviously never part of the original Lincoln Highway.

lee4hmz · 2013-10-14 19:45:56

This is probably the oldest intact steel water tower I've seen so far on Google Maps. (It's not intact anymore; since the Street View was taken in 2007, it seems the tower and the entire water plant surrounding it have been removed, and the site converted to parkland. Still, though...)

It also turns out that the "European" water tower I found in Des Moines is actually on the NRHP.

Princess Alice · 2013-10-16 00:33:49

Various Columbus-area underpasses bearing the names of defunct railroads:

Pennsylvania Railroad

Norfolk & Western Railway

There are probably more, but that's all of them from that one continuous stretch of track.

lee4hmz · 2013-10-16 02:29:27

The NW logo on the Frebis Avenue bridge is the one I remember seeing on coal cars in WV when I was little.

lee4hmz · 2013-10-16 23:26:17

Oh wow, a four-legged version of that weird little CB&I tripod tower.

And another tripod, just down the road from the previous one.

lee4hmz · 2013-10-17 01:29:26

Oh, hey, a swimming pool that looks like a round, open-air drinking-water reservoir. (You don't see many of the latter anymore, because the EPA effectively banned them. Pittsburgh still has an open-air reservoir, but only because it's part of a very popular park; the water is run through an RO system before use.)

lee4hmz · 2013-10-17 22:00:17

viewer.nationalmap.gov is back up (has been since at least this morning), and the geekery has commenced.

lee4hmz · 2013-10-17 22:50:50

Oh, hey, an Aquastore tank that actually has the "AOSmith AQUASTORE" logo on it!

lee4hmz · 2013-10-18 02:54:38

And I made it to Atlantic City. Not much I haven't seen already east of, oh, Lancaster, but I'm done just the same.

Tomorrow, I start on US 50.

lee4hmz · 2013-10-18 21:11:29

An intake structure that looks like a boat!

Princess Alice · 2013-10-19 04:04:08

New Albany before Les Wexner

New Albany after Les Wexner

Yeah, it's pretty much your typical suburban sprawl, but it's amazing just how fast it all happened. Pretty much all of the development you see there has happened over the last 20 years or so...

Fossilmaiden · 2013-10-19 09:29:40

Not old, but it is a good example of how not to do architecture. (It's the local police HQ, was built a few years back.)

Princess Alice · 2013-10-19 15:04:51

I would never have pegged that as a police building; it has the same sort of "trying too hard" 2000s aesthetic that I associate with deliberately grandiose buildings like arenas.

Fossilmaiden · 2013-10-19 15:05:59

Well, it does have the massive "Gloucestershire Constabulary" sign on it. :P

Previous Calica · 2013-10-19 18:05:25

Without that sign I would have pegged it as an arena too.

lee4hmz · 2013-10-19 18:13:14

The first thing I thought of was "old Safeway store".

Princess Alice · 2013-10-19 18:14:06

^ That too

Also I got distracted by traffic control

In front of the building there's a red sign that says "NEW TRAFFIC SIGNAL AHEAD", presumably in reference to that signalized crosswalk a bit down the street

lee4hmz · 2013-10-19 18:33:29

(Bonus: I actually wrote the last post while I was at Safeway!)

Princess Alice · 2013-10-19 18:35:17

Heh.

glennmagusharvey · 2013-10-20 15:10:55

@lee4hmz: Well, that looks more like a "watering hole".

Also, I almost thought that was Virginia until I realized how common the name Sandy Creek was.

Princess Alice · 2013-10-30 07:36:11

The elusive "Yes U-Turn" sign, as I like to call it

(To explain: The City of Columbus has a blanket ban on U-turns, so when a U-turn is permitted, it has to be explicitly posted)

Princess Alice · 2013-11-03 03:19:31

Talk about a confusing mess

lee4hmz · 2013-11-03 03:23:24

glennmagusharvey said:
@lee4hmz: Well, that looks more like a "watering hole".

Also, I almost thought that was Virginia until I realized how common the name Sandy Creek was.

Which post was this referring to?

Anonus · 2013-11-03 03:43:01

Central Avenue said:
Talk about a confusing mess

What is that building with the green roof, and how does that setup adversely effect traffic?

Princess Alice · 2013-11-03 03:52:30

It doesn't really have any adverse effect on traffic, but it's unpleasant to look at. You can probably tell, but the photo was taken when the old span-wire signals were in the process of being replaced by mast-arm signals, so there's an ugly mix of both there.

The building with the green roof is part of a strip mall.

lee4hmz · 2013-11-03 21:57:36

Oh, hey, a water tower along US 50 that's actually interesting! (Lakin, KS)

US 50 really is the loneliest road in America. There is basically a whole bunch of practically nothing between, oh, Tahoe and the Kansas border (Grand Junction and Pueblo are the only largish cities).

lee4hmz · 2013-11-04 22:49:51

The Google Street View car saw itself again! ^_^

glennmagusharvey · 2013-11-05 00:03:37

Thanks for making me wander the Oklahoma panhandle, north Texas, and eastern New Mexico by Google Maps.

I have now discovered the communities of Turpin, Oklahoma; Keyes, Oklahoma; Nara Visa, New Mexico; San Jon, New Mexico; and the Tolar Cemetery.

Justice4243 · 2013-11-05 01:09:00

lee4hmz said:
The Google Street View car saw itself again! ^_^

Does this mean we get six more weeks of summer?

Of water towers, old buildings and other roadside stuff

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