Christine Whelan, FEO April 14, 2022, VOL. 3 ISSUE 17
Installed in 1950, shortly after the 1948 fire that burned a lot of Ridgeway, the Ridgeway Standpipe, on the corner of Farr and Gorham Roads, on the hill, surrounded by the Ridgeway Memorial Cemetery, serviced the Town of Fort Erie for almost 70 years.
The 2016 Niagara Region Water and Wastewater Master Service Plan found there was enough capacity coming from the new Rosehill Water Treatment Plant. As a result, there was no longer a need to maintain the Ridgeway Standpipe.
It was announced in 2020 that the water tower was to be removed. For one reason, it was rusting out after standing unused and half empty.
Rick Doan, a long-time Ridgeway resident and historian, requested on his Facebook Group some time ago to anyone, “If you see work on its demise, please message me so I can document it.”
Coming down
This past March 3rd, Ken Williams, a Crystal Beach resident, began posting photos taken from his backyard on a local Facebook Group. At first, he wasn’t quite sure if what he was witnessing was, in fact, the tower finally being dismantled. By the second photo, he announced yes, it was true.
Piece by piece, the tower began to come down.
Doan and Allan Hackett, a Fort Erie lifer, met on the hill and took a collection of photos and videos, sharing with the community on their Facebook Groups, Ridgeway, Ontario History and Fort Erie – “Our Town”. The online community was very grateful.
Rick scooped a couple of souvenirs. “I have a small 20 X 20 section of the sidewall and one of the huge bolts. I offered them coffee money for the pieces and they accepted.”
Why the big deal?
After standing for 72 years, the Ridgeway water tower had become somewhat of an icon of the area, being able to spot it out on the lake or from Fonthill.
“It’s a very sad day in the history of Crystal Beach. The end of an era,” one local resident commented on one of the water tower posts on social media.
Another typed, “That corner will never be the same.”
Many expressed recollections of excitement from their younger years, seeing the tower and knowing they had reached, “the beach”, the beloved Crystal Beach and soon to be at their cottage, the amusement park or the sandy shore.
I found an interesting comment from a couple of years ago Rick had posted, “Searching the back of my mind, I believe back in the 1950s or 1960s, Ripley’s did one of their little weekly cartoons in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not on the Ridgeway water tower, being the only one in the world, in a cemetery. Does anyone remember that?” This comment got me digging, to no avail.
There were memories expressed on the comment threads of the posted photos of the tower coming down; moments recalled of throwing pebbles at it and hitting it with skateboards to hear the sounds it made. It was a common thing to say at the end of a planning conversation over the years, “Ok, meet at the water tower.”
The icon was always used in giving directions on land. It was also used as guidance from the water. One beacher shared in a posted comment, “When we used to sail with my uncle, we used the water tower as a guide to get us back to shore.”
Some history
Most of our memories are of a white tower but before the Region inherited it, it was painted green in the 1950s.
In 1966, the tower undertook a major sandblasting and repair job. Paul Kassey, who is referred to as ‘Mr. Crystal Beach’ and just celebrated his 91st birthday, climbed the tank to take some great shots of the inside of the tower with the workers at the bottom. You can find these photos on the Ridgeway, Ontario History Facebook Group and any other photos of the tower by going to the group’s search and typing in “water tower”.
The only tower built in a cemetery? I connected with Rick Doan about this recently. He couldn’t find anything to verify the status either. According to Rick, it’s been a rumour in the area for as long as he can remember. And so, it remains a small-town story, founded on rumour.
Why has the water tower coming down made such an impact on people’s lives? It seems the icon was incorporated into its community, local and extended, in a multitude of little, everyday ways. As one resident expressed on behalf of those in ‘the beach’ on the day of the dismantling, “This tower was as common to see as the sun and the moon. There were not too many days in our lives that we didn’t see and look at that structure. Its demise is a big story today.”
photo provided by Allan Hackett
