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Workers begin stenciling one side of the East Main Water Tower Tuesday. The tower which is no longer used is veiwed by many as a Tupelo icon and has been renovated as such. (Thomas Wells)
The council first approved a $39,000 allocation to rehab the iconic tower in June 2009, and it added an additional $12,000 to the project earlier this year.
Engineers first inspected and repaired the inside and outside of the structure, which was built in 1955 but is no longer in service. A work crew then spent months repainting it. A 10-foot-tall logo of a guitar was applied this week.
The guitar is significant because the tower sits atop a hill that was rumored to have been a favorite sitting spot of Elvis Presley when the famous entertainer was a youth in east Tupelo.
“In two days, they should be completed and the whole project will be done,” said Tupelo Water & Light Manager Johnny Timmons.
When the golf-ball-and-tee tower was built, it was the first of its kind in the area.
But the city took it out of service years ago. Since then, the aging structure has slowly deteriorated from lack of routine maintenance.
Members of the Presley Heights Neighborhood Association have long sought to restore it. But the painting and repair are just the beginning. Future plans call for a walking trail and landscaping around its base.
Contact Emily Le Coz at (662) 678-1588 or emily.lecoz@djournal.com.
Maybe it could be the bus stop for the east Tupelo folks.
By the reasoning used to justify spending $51,000 on an old water tower, it follows that we should pay for Priscilla Presley Wagner to have plastic surgery and get a guitar tattooed on her butt! At 65, there are probably some repairs needed to the inside and outside, as well. Elvis spent 13 years with her. The same amount of time he spent in Tupelo.