Behind the Hanson Farmhouse stands an 18-foot tower made of poured concrete. It's the oldest structure on the property, built c. 1922 for the first house on the farm. It may be the last intact stand-alone water tower in the County that served as a source of water for a single family.
Why a water tower?
The first settlers on land reclaimed from the Everglades had rich soil, but with no electricity, it was very difficult to obtain and store water safely. The water tower was built to solve this problem.
The tower was a serious investment. Poured concrete 18 feet high was a major job for a pioneer farm, and the tower would have been a major part of the cost of the house. That outlay shows how much clean drinking water mattered to the pioneers.
Two cisterns, two sources of water
The tower holds two cisterns:
- One collected rainwater running off the roof of the two-story house.
- The other held well water, lifted from a shallow well by a windmill that stood near the house.
The survivor of 1926
The Miami Hurricane of September 1926 destroyed the 1922 house and every other building in the western part of the county. On this farm, only the water tower and the concrete foundations of the 1922 house survived.
The 1928 house was built beside the tower, and the tower was used to supply the household with well water pumped by a windmill.
A bathroom in the tower (c. 1938)
When electricity arrived c. 1938, electric pumps made deeper wells possible and indoor plumbing practical. The primary bedroom was extended at the back of the house to meet the tower, and a bathroom was built inside it.
Bill Hanson, who grew up in the farmhouse, says he never thought it unusual to have the bathroom in a water tower.