*Help date this photo*

MQT1223 · Unread post by **MQT1223** » Mon Apr 18, 2016 4:36 pm

Like I said on the Bridge Street Signal Tower thread I would eventually post this photo and now I have. Can someone help date the photo? All reports put the existing tower being built in the 1880's or 1890's but this seems to contradict all that I have found on the build year. If one scrolls through the photo album after clicking on the link there are other photos of the same tower from other angles.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater

Here is a real unique photo someone posted overlapping one photo of the original tower with the current from the same spot. Further proof that this current tower was in fact NOT built in the 1800's. I speculate the existing tower was built after the GR&I was merged into the PRR.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/skoozo/9736981025/

trnwatcher · Unread post by **trnwatcher** » Mon Apr 18, 2016 5:27 pm

The Interurban went in the early 1900's and was gone by 1927. That is not the same tower. Look at the shape of the cupola. The one there now is square and the one in the picture is ogtagon shaped. Plus the one in the picture is sheathed from top to bottom which probably indicated an internal staircase or ladder. The one there currently has the ladded on the outside. I always thought that the one Columbian Storage has on Hall St was the orginal west side tower and that this one came from near Union Station after it was torn down in the 1960's.

SD80MAC · Unread post by **SD80MAC** » Mon Apr 18, 2016 5:39 pm

That's what I had always heard too, Steve. The one at Columbian is the original.

Tom Train · Unread post by **Tom Train** » Mon Apr 18, 2016 8:27 pm

Well, then the GR Press feature article I .is wrong

MQT1223 · Unread post by **MQT1223** » Mon Apr 18, 2016 9:29 pm

trnwatcher wrote:The Interurban went in the early 1900's and was gone by 1927. That is not the same tower. Look at the shape of the cupola. The one there now is square and the one in the picture is ogtagon shaped. Plus the one in the picture is sheathed from top to bottom which probably indicated an internal staircase or ladder. The one there currently has the ladded on the outside. I always thought that the one Columbian Storage has on Hall St was the orginal west side tower and that this one came from near Union Station after it was torn down in the 1960's.

I think that the one that is there now was built as a replacement by the PRR. This is the original tower from this site in the photo. The one at Columbian Storage I do not think was ever used here but over by Union Station. I will be getting some vintage photos tomorrow of this tower, but I do not know what years they were taken. I do believe that this tower has been at this location since it was built however.

Tom Train wrote:Well, then the GR Press feature article I .is wrong

The problem is that the one from the GR press mentions this lighthouse shaped tower. That is the one they are talking about, and they confuse it with this tower. I have no idea where I could find any build info on the existing structure, but I do know that other towers were built that were nearly identical. Leonard had a tower up where the autozone is today that looks like this but was half the size.

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