Monday, July 22, 2013

Crawfordsville Culverts ... Ingenuity and Entrepreneurship

Crawfordsville was blessed with two men -- Stanley Simpson (town engineer) and James H. Watson (sheet metal worker) who invented and engineered corrugated metal culverts in 1896.  Previous culverts were bulky, expensive and dangerous.  Recently, the local history department acquired a postcard of men installing one of these culverts in front of Central School (later CHS).  Unfortunately, the year on the postmark is illegible but it is believed to be between 1906-1910.   No one in this photograph is identified.

Far right, notice the culvert ready to be installed.

First Corrugated Culvert Factory in Crawfordsville, 1898 

Central School has had changes through the years, here it is similar to the postcard.   Central High School in this photo shows different architecture and stairs (which could be due to fire).

No comments:

Post a Comment