The Phoebus Elevated Water Tank at Cameron Street and Bainbridge Avenue in the Phoebus section of Hampton, Virginia. Photo: August 2017. “Elevated storage was increased by 2 million gallons by the construction of two one-million gallon steel elevated tanks, one at 60th Street in Newport News in 1934, and the other in Phoebus in 1936. These two projects ... were PWA projects financed by 25% to 45% federal grants and 4%, 25 year, serial, revenue bonds accepted by the Public Works Administration.”[1] As of July 2017 this tank is still in operation but according Newport News Waterworks (private correspondence) it is slated for demolition in the coming year (2018).

1. Grant, Walter S. Jr., and Mary W. West, City of Newport News Virginia, Department of Public Utilities, Peninsula Water Supply Hexaemeron 1889-1980. Excerpts supplied by the current Water Works Coordinator, Newport News Waterworks, July 25, 2017.
2. Public Works Administration Dockets 1934-1939 p.119 (docket number X1248, completed December 15, 1938).
3. For more about the partnership between Newport News Waterworks and the federal Public Works Adminstration, see this page.

Photos by George and Connie Gilmer, taken May-August 2017.