Washburn Water Tower Historical Marker

Short term: Tom Balcom, Dirk Nicholson, and other volunteers on our Building, Land Use and Housing committee researched and developed a comprehensive history of the water tower, its architect, and its significance to the surrounding area and used this information and historical photos to create an engaging historical sign installed near the base of the water tower, accessible to anyone visiting the water tower site. Our success in achieving this result was due to in part because Tom Balcom, a local historian, lives in Tangletown and leads walking tours for Preserve Minneapolis that includes the Washburn Water tower and surrounding area. We also have several highly engaged volunteers who are experts in design, journalism, and engaged in doing research.

Intermediate term: We promoted the historical sign and event on Facebook, which was successful in reaching beyond our 758 followers and typical organic reach. The ad reached 8,526 people on Facebook, of which 17 people RSVP'd as going and 184 people indicated that they were interested. We expected 25-30 people would attend the sign unveiling event, and we ended up with 50 people attending. We did not do a formal RSVP where we collected emails, and therefore did not do a formal survey. We did, however, have conversations with attendees to gauge interest and knowledge. Here are the feedback and quotes we gathered:
-"I've seen this forever and did not even know it was a water tower."
-"I'm surprised the tower was used as recently as 2005"
-Questions about the hill the tower sits on--natural or built up?
-Lots of positive feedback from people who say they walk by the water tower all of the time but have never known the history. Weren't aware of the old sign that was located inside the fence and removed several years ago.
-Quite a few attendees talked about visiting the water tower as children growing up in Minneapolis and had lots of nostalgia attending the event
-Many comments about the sign being "very helpful" and that it helped "provide a sense of place"
-A few people mentioned that they gained an appreciation of the tower and understanding of how it relates to the few other historic towers in the twin cities
-Many talked about the water tower as a landmark for their daily lives, and as a place they bring out of town guests to, and were happy to now be able to show and tell the history of it

Because of the issue of falling debris which will be covered in the Long Term section, we have not been actively encouraging residents to walk up to the tower base which the sign is located near. We will return to promoting the sign and visiting the tower when we get approval from the city for our landscaping volunteers to return.

Long term:
-A local paper, the Southwest Connector, has reached out to us to do a follow up story on the water tower historical sign and event.
-Our volunteer site-maintenance program is on hold currently due to some falling debris at the water tower. Due to safety concerns, our volunteers do not have access to the gardens at the site, therefore we are not currently getting feedback on whether there is an increase in visitors. The sign is just outside of the restricted area, so technically visitors are still able to view the water tower and the sign to learn its history, but we are not actively encouraging visitors until we get approval from the city for our volunteers to safely return. The water tower and falling debris are currently being reviewed by structural specialists and engineers. Once their assessments are complete and any repairs are made, we will have access to the tower again and our volunteer site-maintenance program will resume.
-We are submitting this site to BWSR for installation of a pollinator garden specific to the rusty patch bumblebee as part of a project we are working on for the Lawns to Legumes Demonstration Neighborhoods grant. This will bring even more volunteers and visitors to the site for installation, maintenance, and education programs over the next 5 years.
-We have added the project overview and a picture of the historic sign to our Washburn Water Tower content page on our website: Tangletown.org/program-initiatives/washburn-water-tower/
-In addition, this project has inspired our committee volunteers to research the historic Nicollet Ave bridge that goes over Minnehaha Creek and East and West Minnehaha Parkway and is currently in the planning stages for repairs. This is another opportunity for a historic marker in Tangletown and part of the broader neighborhood history concerned with land-use and the built environment.