American Folk Art Buildings

TYPES

Railroad Water Towers

 

Establishment of a -- small, personal -- railroad required development of places and towns and support buildings for function and enrichment. By the 1920s, the nation was well tracked with electric trains to please all ages. Buildings were purchased commercially or often made, to save money or to yield the right look or to manifest skill. For a trainscape, as for other buildings, shaping one's own places and system components was surely satisfying.

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​Early trains large and small needed water. Making dispensing towers showed a remarkable range of takes and looks and engineering imagination. Cans found about the house were often as irresistible as appropriate, as were metal bits and effluvia of all sorts.

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​​Other folk art railroad townscape buildings are seen or surmised in this collection. None look so very swell together as these water towers. Individually but particularly when grouped, they reveal unexpected variety and surprising delight.