Weekend Snapshot: Number 32

My second shot will be my official weekend snapshot because I took it this Friday. All of the shots in this post will be of water towers in my town, but the other ones weren't taken this week. I'm starting with a water tower which isn't a water tower any more at all but is an historic landmark now.
The shot above was taken downtown on March 1 and was erected in 1887, becoming Raleigh's first water tower. Prior to the erection of this tower and the beginning of a municipal water system, the water was drawn from privately owned wells and cisterns. The downtown water tower was abandoned in 1924 and a larger metal tower was erected further west. In 1938 the water tower was sold to Raleigh architect William Henry Deitrick who converted the aging tower to serve as his offices. In 1963 Deitrick deeded the water tower to the NC Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) with binding preservation covenants. The Raleigh water tower is designated as a Raleigh Historic Landmark.
The water tower above is the one closest to me and serves as a marker for directions. I know that I'm not the only one who does this because when googling for information on water towers I came across a dentist's office which says turn right after the water tower. When I started thinking about water towers the first thing I thought of is how they can be markers for getting your bearings. When I walk on the beach during summer vacations, I use a water tower as a marker for how far I've gone.
I was on my way home from my routine surgical oncology check-up the first week in March, when I spotted a water tower I had never noticed before. I was on a busy highway and was shooting blind. By that I mean that I couldn't risk looking at what I was doing but merely snapped a few pictures without doing more than pointing with one hand in the general direction. Considering that, I didn't do too badly and had enough of a shot that I could crop the water tower out of the wider vista. What amused me later was that I stumbled across a site which had a shot of this same water tower which I'm posting above, and they said that it wasn't safe to try to take photographs of it from the highway.
On April Fool's Day, I was leaving my appointment with the pain specialist who follows me, when I glanced down the road and noticed the water tower which is near the State Fair Grounds. Funny how once you start paying attention to something like water towers they crop up all over the place. This water tower is shown above and below.
Once I reached the stop light in my car, on the way home from my pain doc, I took a closer shot of the water tower. So, that's it for water towers and I am pleased to say that we had more rain on Saturday. All across the state we have moved out of the exceptional drought category and only a few counties are still in the extreme status. My county has made it to severe drought and that is such an improvement from exceptional or even extreme, that I'm very pleased. I may even stop talking so much about the drought soon but it sort of fit in with the water tower theme I have going here.

To find other weekend snap shot participants, the home of WS is here - weekend snapshot, or you can browse on technorati, here - Weekend Snapshot