Pumphouse cave art

Recently, the city of Weatherford, Texas completed a new bypass road leading from our main east-west highway (once part of US 80, the major cross-country route at these latitudes, from Savannah, Georgia to San Diego, California, earlier the Dixie Overland Highway) to an important area south of town where there are several banks, city and county offices, our regional hospital, many medical clinics (large and storefront), and lots of small merchants.

The bypass road is named after Jack Borden, a long-time resident of Weatherford, once its mayor, and still a practicing attorney here at age 101!

The project brought into view a long-neglected brick building, apparently belonging to the city (it sits about 75' back from the bypass road, at the edge of the city right-of-way). It is a little mysterious, and I am in contact with various people to try and find out more about it.


The city director of public works has said that he thinks it was built in about 1915 to house a pump, part of the city's sewer system, and was used that way until the 1950s.

Evidently most recently (and I don't think that was very recently) it must have been used as some sort of secure storage facility, since clearly the main entrance had been fitted with a bank-vault style two-layer door arrangement. (The outer door is gone, but the inner door is still intact, except for the lock.)


I visited the building recently and took some pix, including in the interior. I didn't pay a lot of attention to the graffiti inside, as I was mainly interested in things that might reveal how the building had been used.

When I looked at the "dailies", I was startled to find some really fascinating "cave art". Here we see a view of some of it:


Here's a closer look at one piece. It wasn't framed right (since I didn't even know that's what I was shooting!).


We expect to do some more work with this site soon. I have linked up with the curator of the local historical museum, and we will perhaps work together on further investigations as to the history and significance of this building.

Meanwhile, the city contemplates repurposing the building as a restroom facility for a hike-and-bike trail being built nearby.

Best regards,

Doug

Doug,

interesting hand prints around the window.. they remind me of my sons smeared handprints on the windows in my back room ... and gun shots throught the screen !

do you have any more images of the floor and the layout inside?

cheers

Doug Kerr said:

The city director of public works has said that he thinks it was built in about 1915 to house a pump, part of the city's sewer system, and was used that way until the 1950s.

Evidently most recently (and I don't think that was very recently) it must have been used as some sort of secure storage facility, since clearly the main entrance had been fitted with a bank-vault style two-layer door arrangement. (The outer door is gone, but the inner door is still intact, except for the lock.)

Click to expand...

Hi Doug,

Double iron/steel doors like this may be entrances/escape routes to and from undergound military facilities. There are all sorts of entrances that are now the only obvious vestiges of nuclear fallout shelters for politicians, emergency command and control after disasters or you think of it, likely it's rusting somewhere. There could be a silo a mile away. Whatever it was, it's important. Pump station might be a cover up or the pump station for the facility. You have to examine it for all possibilities.

It looks as if someone wanted the door for scrap and so used some heavy vehicle to rip it off it's hinges, or else Godzilla or the Hulk passed that way. So just this doorway to me is fascinating and worth photographing further and in different lighting conditions, such as in the evening with long shadows and orange red light.

Asher

Hi, Mark,

This is what I have so far:


The object in the pit is a pump, evidently in a sump (the motor is gone). My guess is that is was indeed a sump pump - the building is located in a flood plain


Best regards,

Doug

Doug Kerr said:

I visited the building recently and took some pix, including in the interior. I didn't pay a lot of attention to the graffiti inside, as I was mainly interested in things that might reveal how the building had been used.

When I looked at the "dailies", I was startled to find some really fascinating "cave art". Here we see a view of some of it:

Click to expand...

Here's a closer look at one piece. It wasn't framed right (since I didn't even know that's what I was shooting!).


Do you think that the patterns you see are actually drawn/painted or just the by chance artifacts of efflorescence from the concrete was and the patina of time?

Asher

Hi, Asher,

Asher Kelman said:

Do you think that the patterns you see are actually drawn/painted or just the by chance artifacts of efflorescence from the concrete was and the patina of time?

Click to expand...

Certainly could be.

On a distantly-related front, Carla gave me an article the other morning in which new terms were proposed for various issues of contemporary importance. One (I don't remember what the proposed term was) was for the affliction of being unable to see faces or animals in clouds.

Best regards,

Doug

love this-looks like a melting mural with age I do see many imany images

this is called " pareidolia" the word comes from the Greek παρά (para- – "beside", "with", or "alongside"—meaning, in this context, something faulty or wrong (as in paraphasia, disordered speech)) and εἴδωλον (eidōlon – "image"; the diminutive of εἴδος, eidos – "image", "form", "shape"). Pareidolia is a type of apophenia.

Charlotte-