The Sanford Light and Water Company had replaced its wooden standpipe (often referred to as a water tower) on School Street with a metal standpipe forty feet in diameter and sixty feet high. It was located on the ridge back of June Street and well North of Route 202. In 1904 it was dismantled and relocated to the other side of town, on the ridge between Main Street and Hanson's Ridge Road, approximately behind the site of what was then the Maine Employment Security Commission. During assembly its height was increased twenty feet. After having been in use about six weeks, and while being filled, it suddenly exploded in the early morning of November 17, 1904 with a tremendous roar and became a complete wreck. Fortunately nobody was injured. About 800,000 gallons of water were in the tank when it let go. A reservoir off Hanson's Ridge Road was then built to replace the standpipe. -- History of Sanford, Maine, Bicentennial Edition, 1968