Tough to aim/shoot anything (gun or arrow) through such tight lattice, and I'd hate to haul equipment up/down the second level. The lattice on the second level says something, I'm just not sure what... if it was only on one building, I'd say it's just for light, but on two (or more)? I also can't tell if the ladder on the second pic is for show or actually accesses something. Now I'm curious...
A friend out there spotted these, wondered if they were maybe tank-related, and asked me (and no, they don't look tank-related).
The upper part doesn't look like it's meant to be inhabited, due to access and lack of view on the upper example.
The upper part looks like it's intentionally well-ventilated, as in maybe drying some sort of crop or produce.
Looking deeper since I saw this was Woodside, CA near me. I drove thru it about a month ago. It's a horse Mecca.
The median household income there is $213k.
The people who make up the 5,800 population includes:
The founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese
Co-founder of Intuit, Inc.
Founder and CEO of Softbank
CEO of Oracle Corporation
James Folger the coffee magnate
CEO of Sony Corporation
The late Steve Jobs
The second CEO of Apple Inc.
Gordon Moore, of Intel
Founder of Charles Schwab Corporation
Thomas Siebel, founder of Siebel Systems
CEO of Symantec
Founder and CEO of GoPro
I'm going to say it's related to horses. Could they be for tack storage? Small scale hay storage?
I like the water storage idea - the tapered in sides better resists side loads and the relatively large upper floor area means the gravity head is relatively constant over a tall, thin tank. There could be a pump and well in the lower section.
Further - in the brown building - look at the spacing of the beams that support the upper floor. Whatever is there isn't particularly high floor pressure, but that pressure is across a lot of the floor.
Well, water tower seems to be the best answer, so far.
In that lower picture, you can see right through the lattice, so maybe there used to be a tank and there isn't now?
I've seen lots of little elevated tanks by old farm houses, but they were never in a building like this. Just on bare legs or stone base, often with a windmill nearby.
There may be a well, a pump, or a heater in the lower part as well.
The Silver Oak picture seems to be pretty definitive there.
Thanks, everyone!
Well but think about it. You have to put your tank up high enough to provide some head pressure. That results in some big beams and provides an instant roof over the area. It's a no-brainer to simply add a door and some siding to the supports to give oneself a protected space for storage, or a shop, OR a pad for the well-head and a pressure pump.
Could be these were from wind driven wells. Now with pressure tanks, pumps, and robust inexpensive down-hole pumps they've ditched the tanks and their earthquake liability. The San Andreas fault runs thru Woodside.
It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. (Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.)
