A Cute Water Tower in Millburn/Short Hills

Two sorts of connectable dots of current interest are old smokestacks and water towers. Both provide useful landmarks often easily identifiable from a long distance on the congested urban landscape. Both are important elements of the megalopolis industrial and infrastructure heritage, a recurring hike theme.  Both can be historic, but often aren't. Smokestacks are often abandoned - water towers less so - we still need to drink water in our post-industrial age even if we get away with manufacturing many fewer things. Ranging in style from elaborate to utilitarian, there are few examples which would be described as "cute".

But I did stumble across this cute water tower in the Short Hills section of Millburn Township. Not just my opinion but several of the NY Ramblers with me on a recent hike agreed.  
Short Hills started life around 1880 as a faux-rural planned community developed by self-acting roller shade tycoon Stewart Hartshorn. To quote Mr. Hartshorn (from Wikipedia):  "a harmonious community for people who appreciate nature ... and where natural beauty would not be destroyed by real estate developments, and where people of congenial tastes could dwell together". Is this not the perfect water tower for such a community?

It is mostly the Mediterranean style tile roof and the little observatory looking thing at the top which gives rise to its cuteness. In fact some websites suggest it is a lighthouse or observation tower. Thanks to Rambler Chris Z. who sent me a reference from Arcadia's "Images of America" series which identifies it as a water tower and ascribes it to the East Orange water company (click here). I'm going along with Arcadia and calling it a water tower which is what I thought when I first saw it.

Water tank in Millburn Township's Fox Hill Preserve not far from the Mediterranean fantasy tower which is the subject of this post.  This one looks to be in use - well maintained with security fencing, warnings, etc.

The Short Hills water tower looks abandoned but I can't be certain. I found nothing about it on the East Orange Water Commission website. Nearby is a large water tank probably part of the current water distribution system.

Since I started this discussion with water towers and smokestacks, I end with a pair of the latter - at the old Schering factory in Union Township. The decorated brick one on the left of the photo is the sort especially prized in peripatetic perambulations. I'd call it "elaborate" (for a smokestack anyway), but not "cute", although I would not want to abide by strict definitions of either term.

The Hobart Gap (ca. 2014).

Actually March 11, 2014.  Considerably more prosaic than in the past, this is the view looking towards the highest point of the gap on US. Route 24 from Hobart Gap Road on the border between Millburn and Summit, NJ.  With the obligatory security fence.

 

A major pass through the Watchung Mountains, the Hobart Gap has been crossed by Indian trails, colonial era roads, early railroads, and today a limited access highway. 

Of special significance during the Revolutionary War since the British held the lowlands to the east and George Washington's troops hung out just the other side.  A couple of times the British tried to send German mercenaries through the gap and if successful might have wiped out the Continental Army.  But as we all know, they only managed to get a few troops killed and provide locations for historical plaques many years later.  Also as a consequence, the Hobart Gap is not in Canada today.


Here is one of those plaques nearby.   Been around since 1896 and in its present location since 1908, so it is not so easy to read.  It commemorates a signal beacon and a cannon.