The Blythewood Water Tower Pavilion is a beautiful work of art located on the grounds of the Blythewood Library. It was specifically created for the Blythewood Library by renown Charleston artist Jarod Charzewski and completed in 2017.
An installation artist and assistant professor of sculpture at the College of Charleston, Charzewski works with just about any media that falls his way. He’s a self-proclaimed “natural scrounger of things,” finding unlikely usefulness in the detritus of modern human life.
As new libraries were being build throughout the county or renovated, each library was able to install some form of public artwork.
The piece was inspired by the former Blythewood Steam Train Water Tower. This tower was a figure in the Town of Blythewood’s history and serviced the Blythewood railway industry. Working with the Blythewood Historical Society, the artist created a significant historical connection to the Town of Blythewood by engraving the names of town founders in each of the vertical louvers. Those family surnames engraved are:
Mattox, Palmer, Watts, Sharpe, Cook, Goins, Brown, Raines, Abell-Able, Allen Cunningham, Loner, Turkett, Wooten, Hagood, Griffin, Entzminger, Robinson, Kelly, Hogan-Jeffries Creech,Gunler, Hoffman, Brice, Hanberry-Rorer, Langford Broome, Hawley, Reeves, Swygert, Ballentine, Turnipseed. McDaniel, Bookhart, Green, Rimer, McLean, Branham, Trapp, Boney, Wilson, Hagler
“As an artist, I feel this water tower is an important link to Blythewood’s history. The pavilion will nourish the community and its culture while embracing its historic beginnings. It is a symbol for the Town of Blythewood’s stability and hard work. Synonymous with these orgins are the names of people that built a town from the ground up.” – Jarod Charzewski