June 6, 2008

The Witches Tower

The 'witches tower' in prospect park or a really cool way to hide a water tower A quick shot from my car window as I wait for the red light to turn green. This odd looking tower, also called the 'Witches Hat' located in Prospect Park is actually a water tower. What you might not know is, this water tower was also designed as a bandstand. Constructed back in 1913, the bandstand, incidentally, only held one concert. Carrying musical instruments to the top of the sixty foot climb proved to be quite difficult for the musicians. I must admit, this is one really cool way to hide a water tower.

1 comment:

Ginger said...

actually its not a water tower, it was one of the power stations ... I grew up in the Prospect Park area ... if you check out the west side of the hill you will find the power stations entrance hidden in amongst the trees - as kids we were often cautioned by the grade school to stay away from there as it was still in use in some fashion and still carried high voltage. If you climb to the top of the hill and stand under the tower looking at the underside of the Witches Hat, unless they have fixed it, on the Northside there is the 'Ladies Leg'. I remember as kids we couldn't figure out how it could still be there after all those years - it was so disappointing as a teen to learn it was just a plank of wood ... the legend was so much more romantic, in the 1990's I took my two wee-ones and passed the story of the Lady's Leg onto them. The city used to open the Tower once a year at the neighborhood's annual ice cream social - if they still do it, it would be worth the shortness of breath to get a photo from there ... i was up there once - breath-taking ... the view as well as the steps :-)