Sophie Nelson stopped to chat with me at the post office a few days ago. She was curious about the water tower and was wondering how they had built it.
That got me curious also, so I went looking. The water tower was built in 1913 but I couldn’t find anything on how it was built.
That shouldn’t really surprise us, as we are talking about the founders of Coronation, people who didn’t always worry about how something would be done. If something needed to be done they just went ahead and did it.
I did fine a good description of an overhaul they did on it in 1949.

August 11, 1949

“Town Water Tower Getting Working Over, New Paint Job First General Over Haul Since Construction In 1913, Will Cost $4,500
“The Town has engaged Thos. D. Laird, water tower specialist, Fort William, Ont., and his crew to overhaul the water tower and renew piping and other fittings where needed.
“This was found necessary when a recent inspection of the reservoir revealed it to be in need of repair.
“The job will cost $4,500. It is pointed out however, that to replace the tower at the present time, excluding labour, would cost in the neighborhood of $21,000.
“The tower was constructed in 1913 and this is the first time it has had a real general overhaul.
“Work to be done by Mr. Laird includes: Clean and paint 60,000 gallon tank with two coats of aluminium paint inside and out; the steel rods holding the water tank itself in place known as a spider will be replaced; risor pipe from ground to tank will be replaced as this is nearly rusted away; entire wooden frost casing will be renailed and painted; overflow pipe will be changed to a smaller one as it is throwing tower out of line.
“Cement base for tower legs will be sealed and waterproofed and entire tower straightened, cleaned and painted.
“This work, recently approved by the council, will take approximately three weeks.”

Just the overhaul sounds like a massive job, and taking a good look at the tower and thinking of the kind of tools and equipment that were available in 1913, well, it really does make you wonder how on earth they did do it.

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