Historic Hood River
Liberty Home Orchard Tower
Notes
For decades the tower at the A. I. Mason family Liberty Home Orchard at Pine Grove was a Hood River Valley landmark. We’ve seen it in many distant views like this, but I don’t think I have shared a close up yet. I’ve always assumed it was just a nicely disguised water tower, but they sure did put some effort into hiding it.
We have confirmation it was in fact a water tower from this 1912 Hood River News article. As is often the case the search for “Mason” and “tower” in the newspaper archives yielded some additional discoveries– in this case some insight into Mason’s personality, at least as described by one newspaper reporter. This article contains very offensive language, but if accurate gives insight into Mason’s personality which I’ve never seen in any other Hood River Glacier articles about him.
Will
“Mason did not struggle to free his arm but unlimbered his tongue for half a minute.”
Arthur Babitz
Yes, the reporter clearly has some thoughts about this incident.
Alan B Winston
What were the views from the windows at the top of the tower?
nels
The bigger question, why hide a water tower?
kmb
I only scanned the headlines in the HRN, but I could not find the mention of the Mason’s water tower. It leaves me wondering what the purpose of the water tower was – was it for irrigation use only, or was there a local water system in Pine Grove?