Reservoir Identified

The first post I made to the Vanishing Calhoun on August 13, 2007 was about an odd shaped structure above the Boston House on Mt Alto. I issued a general query as to the origins and function of this structure in the blog and started asking around. A local told me that it might be a water tank of sorts. She lived on the hill and heard about a tank that once was near her house. One person speculated that it was an athletic field of sorts – maybe a tennis court. The first hint of what the structure could possibly be came from the 1911 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map for Calhoun. On this map a reservoir is noted as being east of town on or off of O’Calligan Street. This street appears to be the present day alley that leads behind the Calhoun Municipal Building. Sheet 3 of the Sanborn Map clearly shows a system of pipes that appears to take water away from the reservoir and feed to various parts of town. Most notable is an eight inch piper that is labeled “to reservoir”. Today this pipe can be seen in the bank above and behind the municipal building. Further explanation of the structure seen in the picture comes from Jewell Reeves in the 1962 Climb the Hills of Gordon. According to Reeves on March 26, 1898, a bond referendum was voted on to fiance the construction of the town’s first water supply system. Plans included a pumping station to be located on the land of H. L. Hall and reservoir to be construction of Kiker Hill above the jail. The present day Municipal Building is the same structure as the aforementioned jail. Jimmy Palmer, the present Mayor of Calhoun, said that the reservoir was eventually filled in. I think the aerial photo above shows the location of the old reservoir.