Residents of a Tampa neighborhood are trying to save their local landmark, the Sulphur Springs Water Tower.
To raise funds for the restoration of the tower and surrounding park, they’re hosting a music festival this weekend.
“I live in this area, and I drive by the tower every day,” said Keith Malson, the chairman of the River Tower Festival. “It's a gorgeous structure that we're letting go to waste.”
The water tower has been around since 1927 when developer Grover Poole built it to supply water to the nearby Sulphur Springs Hotel.
Besides the hotel, there was a shopping arcade and an alligator farm nearby, making Sulphur Springs an early Florida tourist destination. Because of that, and also because it didn’t look like a regular water tower, the Sulphur Springs Water Tower became a famous landmark, appearing on dozens of postcards.
Everything changed in 1933, when the collapse of the Tampa Electric Company dam destroyed the arcade.
That, combined with the Great Depression and World War II, killed tourism in the area.
The City of Tampa purchased the site in 2005 and installed lights to illuminate the tower. The area surrounding the tower is now known as River Tower Park.
The tower hasn’t had any work done on it since 1989, when it was pressure-washed and painted with 150 gallons of graffiti-proof paint that was donated by Sherwin Williams.
“There are so many other places in Tampa they (the city) are spending money on, and they're just ignoring this,” said Malson. “It’s part of our history, it's been here since 1927, and we need to preserve it.”
According to Malson, it will cost more than $2.6 million to renovate both the tower and the park. That includes the $100,000 it would take just to repaint the tower.
So Malson came up with the idea of a party.
“I've been talking about this event with my wife for years, and I always thought it was a great area for a music festival,” he said. “I always enjoyed music, and putting the two together was just a great idea to use the funds to restore something within the park.”
The goal is not to get all the funds at once. Organizers hope that the festival will become an annual event and raise the money over time.
“It's important to the neighborhood,” Malson said. “Because if you show that you want to preserve the history of [the tower] and you clean up the area, then people will follow suit.”
The River Tower Festival will take place Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. in River Tower Park, and will include live music, vendors, food trucks and fire performers. To learn more about the event, visit preserveourtower.com
