The Great Water Tower Caper

In 1958, 3 students at the then-called Waterloo College Associate Faculties (now the University of Waterloo) climbed the water tower on Lester Street, and painted the word BEER on the side of the tank.

If you do any research on this topic, the images you'll usually find are of a student holding a hose and scratching his head, looking perplexed, with the water tower in the background; and an aerial shot of the tower.

Today, we feature the rest of the images that the Kitchener-Waterloo Record (now the Waterloo Region Record) photographer took that day. They include work being done to repair the vandalism, and a second shot of the student (my personal favourite).

But first off, here are the pictures that ran in the paper:

aerial view of water tower

That's Lester Street on the left, Sunview Street in the centre, and Albert Street on the right.

water tower

Here's a close-up of the water tower.

student with hose and water tower in background

This is the iconic photo everyone knows.

Here are the other shots from that set:

aeiral

Another aerial view.

student drinking out of hose with water tower in background

I'm not sure whether he's sniffing the hose to see if it's beery, or if he's about to drink out of it. Regardless, I love this version.

water tower with people on top

This appears to be cleaning crews hard at work, with someone's laundry in the foreground.

water tower with people on top

A closer shot of the cleaning crew.

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