| Revision as of 03:47, 16 September 2004 editGeogre (talk | contribs)25,257 editsNo edit summary← Previous edit | Revision as of 12:26, 17 September 2004 edit undoGeogre (talk | contribs)25,257 editsNo edit summaryNext edit → | ||
| Line 9: | Line 9: | ||
| The Peachoid has appeared as an oddity in films in the past. In '']'', the travellers stumble across it. | The Peachoid has appeared as an oddity in films in the past. In '']'', the travellers stumble across it. | ||
| ==External Links== | ==External Links and Pictures== | ||
| * | * | ||
| * | * | ||
Revision as of 12:26, 17 September 2004
The Peachoid is the proper name of a very large water tower in Gaffney, South Carolina. The water tower holds 1,000,000 gallons of water and is located by interstate I-85.
Usually referred to by passing motorists as "The Peach," this four storey water tank is visible to travellers on I-85 for several miles before getting abreast of it between exits 90 and 92. A very small parking lot and visitor's center is at the base of the sculpture.
The Peachoid was built in 1981 by the Chicago Bridge and Iron Company of steel and concrete. An overlay stem and leaf were laid across the structure, an enormous "cleft" was created with steel panelling, and Peter Freudenburg, an artist who worked with macro-art, painted the structure to realistically pass for a peach.
The Peachoid was commissioned by the Gaffney Board of Public Works, who had a need for elevated water storage and wished to find a way of building it using federal funding. The shape of the peach was selected because the Gaffney economy was then dependent upon peach orchards, and because the people of the town wanted to make clear that South Carolina produces more peaches per year than the state of Georgia (known as the "Peach State"). Since its construction, the Peachoid's extremely high visibility has introduced an element of tourism to the local economy, and a smaller (0.5 million gallons) peachoid has been built for Clinton, Alabama.
The Peachoid has appeared as an oddity in films in the past. In Lost in America, the travellers stumble across it.