Florence Y’All Water Tower
500 Mall Circle Rd, Florence, KY 41042
Get there with Google Maps by clicking HERE
Date Visited: 09/26/2018
Visited September 26, 2018
Although my site is typically visual, relying on photographs of various “odd & unusual” things I encounter as a full-time vandweller or nomad, sometimes the story is the better than the images. This is one of those times. It is also, in my not so humble opinion a great illustration of beauracracy, bullsh!t, and maybe even legal nonsense, getting in the way of good old fashioned common sense. The result was perhaps genius, but certainly a huge dose of “good, old fashioned, American ingenuity!”
The photographs here are of a million gallon water tower servicing the fine folks of Florence, KY, located just a bit south of the Ohio River and Cincinnati, OH.
In the early 1970s, the developers of a planned mall donated a plot of land to the city of Florence for the water tower. The condition was that “Florence Mall” be painted on the structure advertising the future mall to motorists on nearby roads, including I-75. The mall was scheduled to open in September 1976. Legal issues were raised by mass media and in July 1974, State Highway Bureau officials told the city that the tower’s sign was illegal because it advertised something that didn’t yet exist.
Among the things that were discussed was renovating the roof or covering the name with a large tarp. As time ran out to comply with the order, municpal workers and executives gathered for a discussion session at the Stringtown Restaurant with CM “Hop” Ewing, then Mayor of Florence, drawing different ideas on napkins. Ewing eventually came up with the idea of removing the vertical lines of the letter “M” in MALL, adding a stem to make it a “Y”, and adding an apostrophe; resulting in “Y’ALL”. Ewing called it “a cheesy solution, but the price is worth it,” because the small change would cost a third of the full revision or repainting the water tower.
The billboards around the Florence Y’all Tower advertised the store better than just a sign. On the day the store opened in late 1976, visitors to the store created a traffic jam on Kentucky Route 18 off I-75.
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Thanks again!
Joe
