Tankhouses of San Mateo County

This simple tankhouse in San Mateo County is just used as a guest house by its owners. The tank has been removed leaving a picturesque, covered viewing platform.

A group of painters went to the Fleischacker estate in Woodside, California to do some painting. I entered through a gate at the back of the property and was immediately facing a tankhouse. Since I am a tankhouse nut, like some people are schoolhouse, barn and depot nuts, I immediately set up my easel and painted and sketched. It appeared the gardener was using the building for various yard care items. A flat of nursery plants were outside the door on a small table where an old heavy black car battery was stored below.

There were a couple acres of open field in front of this tankhouse in Woodside, California and it was a lovely sight against the hilly backdrop of the Coastal Range. When I went into the yard for a close-up view, I saw that woodpeckers had riddled the walls of the upper portion of the structure and planted acorns in the holes.

This isn't exactly a tankhouse. It began as an unsightly well, dug in 1917. It was disguised shortly thereafter by this attractive facsimile windmill. Living quarters for a caretaker were provided in the base structure which is why I am including it here. It was a pretty sight in 1985 to see this windmill, red with white trim, situated along Portola Road out in Portola Valley, California. It has since been repainted a generic beige color. I liked it better when it was red.

This very simple Redwood City tankhouse was in use as a garden storage shed during the 1980's. An asphalt shingled awning protect the entrance.

The water tank was overflowing on the day of this drawing in 1977. The tankhouse is located near the Senior Center in Redwood City, California. The older woman resident, wearing a flowered dress, talked to me as I drew, telling me of the wonderful times she had years ago when her family lived there. Her eyes filled with tears as she relived those memories. A small sleeping room was located at the top of the tankhouse stairway. The building was demolished in 1995. The San Francisco 49ers Pro Football team leased a building and a football field two-hundred yards away from where I sat to sketch and a couple of them stopped by to see what I was drawing.

It was easy to see the top of this windmill as it was just a couple dozen yards from the road and almost the same level as the highway overpass in Redwood City, California.

The 3,000-gallon tank at the top had been in use since 1920 and was filled with water at the time of this drawing in 1977. The low structure, hugging the ground to the right of the building, housed an electric pump which took over the function of the old windmill. The old fellow who lived in the main cottage told me of the time the tank was once overfilled and caused the structure to tilt a bit because the ground beneath it was not stable. After that, they were careful to watch the water level in the tank.

He had spent a lifetime in the Merchant Marine, which explained the port and starboard running lights, anchors, chains and helmsman's steering wheel nailed to the tankhouse exterior wall. There was more maritime memorabilia scattered about the yard. Somewhere in his journeys he had collected a hula girl made from two coconut shells. It was tattered and covered with soot and dangled, forlornly frayed, from the clothesline pole.

I made three trips to draw at this location. By then I had learned that he shared the house with an unsmiling man who I believe was his aging brother. Sharing a house didn't mean they had to be on speaking terms. I noticed that one fellow used only the front door and the other man used the back door. I never heard them exchange a word, even if they were out in the small yard at the same time. Perhaps I just happened to be there on days when they were not communicating, or maybe by the time they reached that age they had nothing new to say to each other.

In the early 1990's, the tankhouse was hauled to a piece of land adjoining a grammar school where it was reassembled. In the year 2000-2001 it was hoisted by a 50-foot crane onto a flatbed truck and hauled away in the early morning hours to be restored and have a place of honor in a public park. It is a well-traveled tankhouse.

This mustard colored tankhouse with a topping of carved filigree was suddenly visible to passersby when the lot was cleared to build a new house in Atherton, California. I was glad I sketched it, for by the time the house was completed the tankhouse had been removed. About a year later my drawing was published in a weekly village newspaper that was running a series of my drawings. Within two days I received a phone call from a young couple who had purchased and dismantled the tankhouse with the intention of rebuilding it on their property for use as a children's playhouse. They meticulously numbered all the boards as they pulled the building apart, and stacked them in proper order at their home fifteen miles away. This careful couple forgot one small detail. They had neglected to photograph the structure before they tore it down and weren't certain how their reassembled tankhouse was supposed to look. They were delighted to see the drawing in the newspaper and were eager to buy a print.

This huge steel tank, supported by a substantial trestle, is surrounded by houseboats in Docktown on the San Francisco Bay waterfront in Redwood City, California. The area below the tankhouse contains offices. The houseboat residents pick up their mail at the bank of postal boxes mounted on the left side of the building. It was an interesting area with many boats up on blocks being worked over and refurbished.