"The Art of Historic Preservation"
9th Annual Preservation Week 2007 Photo-Essay Competition
Second Place: Thomas Wolfe, 11th Grade, Frankfort High School
Title: The Art of Historic Preservation Essay Competition
Cove Spring Park is Frankfort’s oldest park but also its newest. But one intriguing fact about Cove Spring Park is that it is home to one of thee first public water supply systems west of the Alleghenies. It was the first waterworks systems in Kentucky and the second system in the United States. Established in 1804 the water works system was built out of lime stone by the city of Frankfort, using a gravity-feed distribution system and pipes bored out of cedar wood. In 1839 the spring was dammed and the cedar wood pipes were replaced. The water works at the park provided the town of Frankfort with water for decades.
Now, many years later, Cove Spring is a public park, open since 2002. The park has numerous walking trails and picnic shelters. But signs of the old reservoir are all around the overflow tower still stands today. And a section of the old dam still stands intact. Many people walk by the overflow tower and the section of dam, without realizing what a key role those two structures played in Frankfort’s history and also Kentucky’s history.
It’s small things like the reservoir at Cove Spring Park that make Kentucky’s history interesting. Few people know about the water works system that once was Cove Spring and by preserving it then more people may get the chance to learn about its past before it is completely gone. The over flow tower and dam wall should be preserved as reminders of the first water works system in Frankfort and in Kentucky.
This essay and photograph(s) are the property of Preservation Kentucky, Inc. and Kentucky Heritage Council and that any use of the photo or essay must be approved by PK and KHC. |
