Coffeepot to move to history center

 STANTON — After months of deliberation and number crunching, Stanton’s beloved coffeepot water tower will be finding a new home in the Swedish city.

Once a $1.2 million water main replacement project is completed in 2015, Stanton’s coffeepot will dry up for good, but the icon will be preserved, lowered and moved to the Stanton Historical Society property on Hilltop Ave.

“It’s the best idea I could come up with to save the tower and maybe help out the history center a little bit,” Stanton Superintendent Zeb McFarland said at Saturday’s historical society annual meeting. “The hardest job here is to get people in the door, to get people coming… I think it would be really good for the history center and really good for Stanton.” 

Built in 1942 then remodeled in 1970 in honor of Stanton native Virginia Christine who played Mrs. Olson in Folger’s Coffee commercials, Stanton’s famed water tower is the world’s largest coffeepot. By 2000 though, the pot could no longer supply enough water for the town, and a larger water tower, fashioned as a cup and saucer with the same floral design, was built on the south side of town. 

The coffeepot remained in use supplying only a portion of Stanton with water because the city’s water main system wasn’t strong enough to handle the increased pressure of the new tower. 

Now, though, plans are finalized for a complete replacement of the city’s water mains, meaning by early 2015, all of Stanton’s water will come  from the cup and saucer and the coffeepot will have served its last drop. 

Initial conversations were in favor of restoring the tower and keeping it at its present location on the east side of town, according to McFarland, but once estimates nearing half of a million dollars came in, something else had to be done. 

McFarland said before any work could be done on the tower, an OSHA-approved ladder and mid-rail on the balcony would need to be installed. Next, the tower needed to be tented and sandblasted to remove the multiple layers of lead-based paint before it could be repainted. There’s also rust under the spout because it was never capped off, meaning rainwater collected in the opening, and the hatch to gain entrance to the tank needed to be repaired. McFarland said one estimate was around $450,000 and another was closer to $500,000.    

“There’s some people who want to keep it where it’s at, but we just plain don’t have the money,” McFarland said. “We can’t ask everyone to come up with that kind of money, and we can’t even bill for it because it won’t be part of our water system anymore.”

Moving costs, McFarland said, are much more attainable.

The city will cover the $30,000 fee to move and install the tower in the new location. Plans indicate the 30-foot tower will stand on 10 feet of legs, and the ladder and balcony will be removed to prevent climbing. 

The coffeepot will still need to be sandblasted and repainted, which will cost about $73,000, a fee the historical society will be responsible. While fundraising efforts have already begun, McFarland said there may be another source. 

After initial articles ran across various mediums on the possibility of losing the town icon, McFarland got in contact with Danny Feld, Virginia Christine’s son who is a photographer in Los Angeles. According to McFarland, Feld was supportive of the cause and didn’t want to see the tower destroyed. 

“My plan is to write Danny Feld and give him these options and explain it to him and see where he stands and if he wants to contribute,” McFarland said. “You never know, he may pay for half of it or 75 percent. I think that’s the first step, and once we see where he’s at then the history center can make their decisions on what they want to do.” 

Current plans are to move the tower during the winter or early next spring to have the tower in place by Stanton’s 2015 homecoming celebration, in which Feld plans to attend. 

“I think by doing all this, it’s going to bring some life back to it and get more public attention,” McFarland said. “If you stop and think about it, when the kids win state or qualify for state, they’ll stop and take pictures out there by the sign… if that was right out here and people could see it and touch it, well that would be pretty great.”