The "The Symbol Of Zip 08247" Story

The Stone Harbor water tower and pumping station.

It was an ordinary day.  Checking the photos that I recently took while on vacation at Stone Harbor, New Jersey.  Stone Harbor is a beautiful town that has an average single-family home which sells for $2.5 million.  And, that was 6 years ago!  The town has a year-round population of under 1,000 which swells tremendously in the summer.  My cousin and his wife own a home on one of the major streets in the city and have a great view of the water from their porch.  But, what I remember more than anything else in this city by the sea is the huge aqua-colored water tower in the center of town.  I must have more photos of the water tower than any other landmark in the city.  

Original pumping station and water tower at 96th and 2nd.

It was back in the early 1900s that a well was tunneled 856.5 feet into the gound at the corner of 96th Steet and 2nd Ave. to reach a water source that began in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.  The water was funneled to a pumping station and water tower which served the town.  Eventually, a new and larger pumping station was built in 1924.  

The 1924 pumping station with tower next to it.

That station is now the oldest municipal structure that is still in use in Stone Harbor.  The original tower was replaced in the 1940s with a four-legged structure that held 150,000 gallons of water.  A larger tower was needed with the expansion of  building in Stone Harbor so in 1978 a 133 foot, single column, hydro-design was built.  

Both the old tower and new tower
stood side by side for a few months
until the one on the right was removed.

Both towers stood together for a few months until the older version was removed.  Today water is supplied by four wells that are 890 feet in the ground that draw water from the Kirkwood-Cohansey Aquifer in the nearby New Jersey Pine Barrens.  The water is aerated, disinfected and pumped into the 500,000 gallon tower.  I can remember making a visit with my wife and my parents to visit my cousin and his wife for a week in 2005 and seeing the tower covered with Peter Max paintings.  They covered most of the tower and copies of the artwork were for sale in galleries and stores in town.  The money received from the reproductions was used to benefit The Wetlands Institute as well as local charities.  Many residents of the town didn't like the paintings on the tower and they were abandoned after the summer season.  A few of my photos from this year are featured with this story, as well as a few historical photos taken years ago that show the original tower and pumping station.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.    

The tower was white in color in 2005 when it was surrounded with paintings by Peter Max.

Today the pumping station still stands at the corner of 96th Street and 2nd Avenue in Stone Harbor, NJ.