A vestige of Salisbury’s past that in recent years had become an ugly, rusted spectacle on the way into town is getting spiffed up with fresh paint and the new city logo.

The Lemmon Hill standpipe was built in 1888, two years after a fire devastated a large section of the downtown area. City leaders realized a more modern water system was needed, but it was abandoned in the mid-20th century and allowed to sit and rust for decades.

Plans to restore the standpipe in the Newtown Historic District have been included in the city’s capital improvement plan for the last 18 years, but the work was deferred for various reasons, said Mayor Jake Day.

“It keeps getting punted and punted and punted,” he said.

An identical standpipe in Easton near the Tidewater Inn was refurbished and painted light blue several years ago, and Day said he was impressed by the results.

“It didn’t look like an eyesore anymore,” he said.

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Now the restoration of Salisbury’s standpipe is included in Phase 1 of a 20-year master plan for the city that was adopted last year, Day said.

The city included $100,000 in the budget for the work, said Amanda Pollock, the city’s director of infrastructure and development. Of that amount, $83,750 will pay for the sandblasting and painting work done by Manolis Painting of Baldwin, Maryland.

After that, the city will spend between $10,000 and $15,000 for spotlighting that will be installed by city workers, she said.

Pollock said the finishing touches are being made to the giant SBY logo that adorns two sides of the standpipe. The logo on one side faces west so it is visible to traffic from the drawbridge.

“That logo should be staring right at you when you come into town,” she said.

City leaders in 1888 approved an agrement with J.A. Cloude & Co. of New York to build a new public water system for Salisbury, according to the Maryland Historical Trust, which listed the Lemmon Hill standpipe in the Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties in 2001.

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The 165-foot structure sits on a concrete base and is made of curved iron sections that were riveted together. The top is finished with decorative ironwork.

On Sept. 15, 1888, the Salisbury Advertiser reported water to the standpipe had been turned on: “Last Wednesday afternoon the machinery at the Water Company was put in motion for the purpose of filling the standpipe. The machinery worked first rate, In fact entirely satisfactory. The work of filling the standpipe which has a capacity of 90,000 gallons, was accomplished in five hours. Under ordinary circumstances this will be done in a much shorter time as the machinery was not run to its full capacity.The work of driving the wells is not yet accomplished. The water used was taken from the river.”



In the 1920s, the city upgraded the original water system and built a new facility on East Main Street. Eventually, the standpipe was abandoned.

Day said the old structure will now spruce up the neighborhood.

“We’re pretty excited to have an eyesore turned into a landmark,” he said.

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