ARTESIAN WELL – When a 100-foot well was dug for the Barn Theatre in Frenchtown, a pressurized water source was tapped, resulting in an artesian well (a well that shoves water to the surface without the need of a pump). The theater used what water it needed and the overflow came out of a pipe into a drainage ditch on Twelfth Street.
In 1963 neighbor George Beck built a masonry foundation to secure the pipe so that mischief makers couldn't twist the pipe around and flood the parking lot.
Hundreds of people would routinely fill up jugs with the water. During a drought in 1964 the well “stopped for the first time, recovering only at night,” reported the Sept. 18 issue of the Del Val News. Once the drought ended, the water came back.
Helen Hoffman, who lived across the street from the well's outflow, said in 1978 that she'd counted 50 people a day, stopping to get water.
After the Barn Theatre closed in 1989, Thomas Henry seemed to take charge of the property even though it was still owned by Marjorie Kent. He wanted to convert the place into a Country & Western saloon and dance hall. His plan met lots of resistance from borough officials and residents. (More about that later.)
In an effort to make everyone angry at the opposition he was getting, early in 1990 Henry put a cage around the outflow pipe. His signage, whose exact wording I forget, tried to convey the message: Now see what they've made me do!
Of course everyone was angry – at him. Then he figured out a way to make it a coin-operated procedure, which made people even angrier. When the DeSapio brothers finally bought the old theater and remodeled it for office space, they continued charging for the water as they do to this day.
From "Rick's Frenchtown Encyclopedia"
Spent many days at that water pipe. Memories....😊
Nice shot. Who was the photographer?
Dad always stopped to fill a jug of water when we were in Frenchtown.
great articles! Thank you.