Airdrie’s Historic Water Tower
It’s that giant silver lollipop thing west of the QEII you see when driving through Airdrie. You can’t miss it. And up there in big proud letters on that shiny metal sphere, for all to see…spell it out with me…A.I.R.D.R.I.E! Dating back many years this water tower hasn’t seen use for some time, but it’s been saved and now welcomes people to town. Once an important part of the community’s infrastructure, this reminder of times past has found a second calling as a local landmark and curious roadside attraction.
Built in 1959 it was made obsolete a mere dozen years later due to growth of the (then) village. When constructed it was out in the sticks but has since been swallowed up by the ever expanding (now) city. It’s almost lost among the clutter if not for the fact it’s a little taller than everything else around.
When installed, Airdrie was home to some four hundred people. I know, wow! When decommissioned and replaced by a larger capacity reservoir in 1972, the population was four times that (and they were just getting started). This explains why the tower was in use for such a short time – they simply outgrew it. Today’s the city is home to some seventy thousand people(!) most of them relative newcomers. That’s a gazillion percent increase (my math teacher would be so proud) over a short time or some 17400% when we quit being silly and do a proper calculation. Freakin’ incredible, the size difference between then and now.
We’ve seen other water towers much like it in other small communities. Some are bigger, some similar in size, some have spherical shapes like this one, some are spheroid, so like a squished ball, but all display common design elements. The form is that of tall post, with a big rounded tank on top and with a tapered flare at the base. It’s a timeless design that’s still in production today as it turns out.
One manufacturer, we think the one that made this tower, who also appears to be the largest firm in the business (Caldwell of Kentucky) calls them Pedesphere Elevated Storage Tanks, or PEDs. Doing a little guessing with dimensions and comparing with old data sheets, this one is about as small as they got, or close to it.
Given most of the city is relatively new, there’s not a lot of stuff from the old days in this community. With that the tower’s unique, a rare connection back to when Airdrie was not simply a bedroom community to Calgary, but a quiet little farming village. This boom town, present day (with some time off for Covid maybe), this a mini-me Calgary, was once a backwater burg? No way! Yes way! Who’d have ever guessed. Down by the tracks, not all that long ago, it was a group of houses, a few grain elevators and not much else. Now, it’s endless power centres or what ever they call strip malls today and new neighbourhood after new neighbourhood and a growth unprecedented.
Stay tuned for more interesting posts.
Water storage for railways…
New Brigden Water Tower.
Canadian Pacific Railway Octagonal Water Tower – Cranbrook BC.
More like this…
Blame Bachusky <---everyone should.
Onarc – Strange name for a town.
If you wish more information on what you’ve seen here, by all means contact us!
Date of Adventure: April, 2020.
Location(s): Airdrie, AB.
Article references and thanks: City of Airdrie.
The historic water tower in Airdrie Alberta.
When we went out to the Beierle farm in the 70’s ( family ) that water tower was so bright from the sun. A great childhood memory as of many on the farm.
Awesome!
I like how in Lethbridge, someone turned the large water tower into a restaurant
What an interesting repurposing.
Airdrie has changed alot. Spent a fair bit of time there in the 80’s. Tower lane mall, 7/11 downtown, Brandos the old bar, auto wrecker right behind the mall, home hardware downtown, the Met, moneys mushrooms plant right in town, bmx track and yep the grain elevators all long gone. And that is just to name a few. I believe there is a plaque located where the elevators were? I remember a humpback bridge by them I would jump my 4 x 4 Datsun over lol. Then there is the huge shopping area on the sw corner. Running south from yankee valley road behind the stores and parallel to the train tracks is a ghost road. It used to lead to my friends farm. His house was close to where the walmart is.
Change and growth in Airdrie is a constant. It was a little village when the tower was built and someone from that time would never recognize the place today. Recall the elevators and the scrapyard by the tracks.
Nice!
Short and sweet!
One thing about a water tower it works during a power failure. I operated a small water system in a village with a tower that held about a 3 day supply and I tried to operate on the top 2 feet so there was a 2 day reserve and also fire fighting water. If nobody repealed the law of gravity you were good.
The crazy way the world is going, the law of gravity might be next to go!
Like the Red Deer water tower.
Yes, and perhaps it even came from the same maker. They made these in many sizes, with the Airdrie one on the smaller side.
I used to go to daycare there! Haha I didn’t know it wasn’t in use even then.
With the town’s growth its capacity was soon outstripped. When built Airdrie had a population of some 400! Imagine that!
We always get the pictures, but seldom do we get any sort of write up. I would have expected nothing less from you guys. Thank you, as always.
We love the back story even if most of our readers aren’t in fact readers, but photo browsers and so don’t take the time to read the entire post. But still we do it anyway. Haha!
I remember when Innisfail’s water tower was taken down, very quickly with little discussion. You can see this tower from Where on Earth Did You Get That? Antique Mall
– it’s only a few blocks north.
When no longer needed, they’re often demolished soon after.
I notice there is a lot of towns named after their water towers.
I know, what are the odds? It happens with grain elevators too! Funny stuff.