Early public water systems used wooden pipes to carry water underground to homes and businesses. One major manufacturer of wooden pipes was the National Wood Pipe company, located about where the Hands On Children’s Museum is today. This photograph shows a load of wooden pipes being transported along the Union Railroad tracks on Jefferson Street. Recent excavations on Legion Way unearthed one of these older wooden pipes.
State Library collection, undated between 1880 and 1920, Archives image AR-07809001-ph004598
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian, 2020