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.

Diners as Dots

Connecting dots is a way of structuring peripatetic perambulations. Sometimes it forms the basis for a hike, as in the Brooklyn Patrick Keely hikes of years past, or my IND electrical substations hike planned for June.  The range of possibilities is endless.  Jean Arrington leads great hikes connecting NYC schools built by the visionary architect C.B.J. Snyder. Connecting dots of a particular sort works best when there are enough of them spread over a walkable distance and when there are plenty of dots of other sorts to maintain interest between those which form the main theme. Rarely a problem in NYC but elsewhere, it depends.  In a sense all good urban hikes can be thought of as "connect the dots" hikes. 

The Summit Diner (Union County).  A 1938 O'Mahony Diner, this is one of the most historic in the state.  Right by the Summit train station, it is easy to connect on various hikes.

So what about a New Jersey diner connect-the-dots hike?  It is a good thought and I keep notes just in case.   I've done Texas Wiener restaurant hikes in Clifton and Paterson which were generally well received (even by participants who actually consumed hot dogs at each site).  Diners are an iconic part of the NJ landscape and NJ was a major center for their manufacture - some say the Jerry O'Mahony Diner Company of Elizabeth made the first diners, although Wikipedia cites earlier examples.  Depends in part on how a diner is defined. 

Harris Diner - a 1952 O'Mahony in East Orange (Essex County).  Less than a half mile off the route of  Walk Across NJ No. 10.  But given distance constraints we will give it a miss.

There are serious diner enthusiasts out there.  Some focus on New Jersey diners and all of them, if they are really serious, have to make a pilgrimage to the Garden State at some point.  They organize tours (invariably by car) and have useful websites (one of the best can be found here) and fight for landmarking and preservation of historic diners, for which they are occasionally successful.  Michael Gabriele has written perhaps the definitive history of New Jersey diners (click here).  So there is plenty of source material to draw upon.  

The Arlington Diner in North Arlington (Bergen County) dates to 1966 (Kullman). Easily connected when bridgebagging the lower Passaic River.

I am not one of those serious diner enthusiasts. Although I do really like the old ones.  I find the food fine and generally good value - at least when ordering the right things - but I can't say I am extremely enthusiastic about it. I go inside as much to admire the often retro interiors as to have a meal or cup of coffee.  My interest in diners here is simply as dots to connect on hikes.

The Colonial Diner  in Lyndhurst (Bergen County) is a ca. 1948 Mountain View Co. diner.  Right across the street from the graves of William Carlos Williams and Joey Ramone (among others).

But I am unlikely to organize a diner themed connect-the-dots hike. For one thing, diners came into existence and grew up with the automobile and are largely tied to the automobile dependent parts of the NJ landscape.  Spread out, often on major highways.   Even in the more densely populated northeastern part of the state, a route to connect the requisite numbers of diners (I'd say at least five or six) is likely to mean more highway walking than even I am up for.

The old Short Stop Diner (Kullman/Manno, 1953) in Bloomfield (Essex County) masquerading as a Dunkin' Donuts.  Possible restroom stop on Walk Across NJ No. 10.  

So I think of diners more as adventitious dots to connect on hikes with other things in mind.  Some, like the Summit Diner are right by the train station and easy.  We get great views of the wonderful Arlington diner consequently to crossing the Route 7 bridge across the Passaic River.  I'm confident an excuse could be found to pass by almost every interesting and historic diner in the northern part of the state on some hike or other. Not that I have any intention of actually trying to do that, although it is a nice thought.  

Another New Jersey Diner pretending to be something else - in this case a New York Diner as if that were something to take pride in.   In Woodside, Queens and built ca. 1949 by the Mountain View Co.  The phony canopy thing in front is unfortunate.  Connected on Long Island Railroad bridgebagging hike in February, 2014. 

So here are examples of diners throughout megalopolis, all manufactured in NJ, which I have passed by on a hike of some sort. I could easily drive around and take pictures of lots more diners, but that would be cheating.  It would suggest, quite wrongly, that I am serious about diners.

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.