Structure # 246 Gierin Farm Cooling Tower
Port Williams
North side of Port Williams Road, east of Brown
Ed Gierin bought the dairy farm in 1906 from the Widow Brown. In 1907, he improved the dairy farm by digging Gierin Creek into a flowing stream. That year, he also built the tower. The tower was used as a cooling tower for milk. Mr. Gierin cooled milk from his cows and also milk from at least 2 other families who had dairy farms nearby. The milk was kept cool in metal cans until a steamboat came over from Seattle to what was a bustling port community called Port Williams.
The tower is built along the bank of Gierin Creek over an artesian well that brought water up to the surface naturally. Water was drawn up into the tower where it then flowed down along a surface that has been described as resembling a washboard. The water flowed along the milk cans and kept them cool. When the boat was due down at Port Williams pier, the cooled milk was loaded up into a wagon and hauled down to the boat. taken care of.
The well and pump for the water supply to the farmhouse are located in the tower. During the winter, when the sun came out and shown on the south-facing windows of the tower, two raccoons could be seen squeezing their heads and shoulders out of the broken glass of the high windows in order to "loll" in the warmth, squirming around to try to get comfy.
This property was added to the Washington State Register of Historic Places in 1988.
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