Hello Again, Field Trips at Louisville Water Tower!

“My definition of a water tower- there’s only seven left in the entire country and this is the oldest one from 1860. It even pre-dates the Chicago Water Tower by nine years.”

Visitor Experience Specialist Lynn Humphrey was excited to welcome students back to Louisville Water Tower. In January, the Tower hosted its first in-person field trips since a major restoration project began at the Tower in summer 2022.

Humphrey taught a group of seventh graders from Montessori School of Louisville about the history of Louisville Water and the Tower before diving into a lesson about the ways our water source can get polluted. The class learned simple things they can do to protect our water source, the Ohio River, simply by throwing away trash, recycling, and picking up after their dogs during walks.

The students toured the rest of the Louisville Water Tower property including the pumping stations which carry the water through pipes to the Crescent Hill Treatment Plant.

“They were impressed by the pumps that bring our water up from the river and enjoyed learning how it is processed at Crescent Hill. They were surprised at how much water was pumped out of the Ohio River each day, and how small that was to how much water flows past us,” said Carrie Tilton, Middle School Lead Teacher at Montessori School of Louisville.

In case you’re wondering, roughly 75 billion gallons of water from the Ohio River flows past us every day. Louisville Water uses less than 1% of that abundant supply, delivering an average of 127 million gallons of Louisville Pure Tap® to a million customers every day.

Tilton’s class field trip was part of a larger learning experience centered on the systems that make our city run and help meet the needs of residents. She said they gained a greater appreciation for the conveniences of city life.

Meanwhile, a group of scouts returned to the Tower for the first time in three years. The troop jumped right into the activities inside the revamped WaterWorks Museum. There were a few puzzled faces when the kids discovered the old phone booth with a rotary phone.

“It was hilarious watching all of them try and figure it out,” Community Relations Manager Channa Newman chuckled.

Rounding out the last week of February, a large group of Assumption High School students got an up-close look at the history and science of Louisville Water. In addition to touring WaterWorks, their visit included a hands-on experiment that illustrated the water treatment steps in the river-to-faucet process.

Supervisor of Event Operations Megan Jones said, “It’s great to have kids and students back at the Tower. It’s fun and we genuinely enjoy teaching them the story of our drinking water.”

Schedule your field trip to Louisville Water Tower and WaterWorks Museum today!