Water tower to be ‘made a landmark for Pea Ridge’ after City Council approves mayor’s recommendation

PEA RIDGE – The town of Pea Ridge’s first water tower is more than 100 years old.

Located south of downtown Pea Ridge, this centuries-old water tower served the town’s residents for more than 30 years before being replaced by a new water tower in 1993.

The old water tower, which originally served Springdale before being moved to Pea Ridge in the mid-1960s, is now being “brought back to life and made a landmark for Pea Ridge” after the city council approved a recommendation from Mayor Nathan See, according to the advertise for offers to repaint the tower. He said it will be silver and forest green as it was originally, with block letters spelling out Pea Ridge.

“I just think it’s an iconic piece of history,” See said. “I think residents would appreciate it being restored rather than removed. I think it’s important that we show our respect for history by restoring it.”

The tower occupies a quarter of an acre west of an apartment building on North Curtis Avenue. This residence was the home of former Mayor Finis Wood at the time. According to historian Billie Jines, the Woods leased the land for 99 years for $1 and “other consideration, including free water while they were alive.”

Pea Ridge’s old water tower was purchased by Pea Ridge of Springdale, dismantled in Springdale and rebuilt on site in town. Former Mayor John Easley said the administration started buying it before he bought it. Easley was mayor from 1965 to 1966.

“It came out of Springdale, where it was dismantled and then rebuilt here,” Easley said in an interview years ago. He explained that this was the city’s first water storage tank, although “Mr. Patterson had a water tank in the air that gravity fed water to some of the downtown businesses.”

Before the city’s water system, Easley said, there were both wells and cisterns for the city’s apartment buildings.

There is also a siren on the tank, which Easley recalled having helped raise it to the second level of the water tower.

“We used a rope and pulled it up there. It wasn’t easy,” he said.

According to a 1991 article by Jines, the city’s water system was started in 1954 by Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Webb Sr., which was started by Mr. and Mrs. Finis Wood for $1 and other considerations, including being anhydrous while alive.

Jines wrote that the city bought the water system from the Webbs 10 years later. The Bonding Company didn’t allow free water, so the Woods got $100 and they signed a resignation letter to the city.

In 1966 a three-purpose siren was installed on the water tower. According to Jines, it was intended for use as a civil defense, fire, and natural disaster siren.

Jines wrote that a Pittsburg, Kan. company painted the tower and painted the cone-shaped top green as a symbol of that company.

According to Jines records, the structure would have been constructed around 1921. A surveyor from the water authority recently estimated the building to be at the turn of the century because it was riveted instead of welded.

The city’s population grew and a second water storage tank was needed, which was built in 1993. This tank holds 500,000 gallons of water. A third tank was installed in the city’s system in the fall of 2008. That, too, is a half-million-gallon capacity tank, according to city water superintendent Ken Hayes.

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