Monday Blues: F. E. Weymouth...

When I first moved to Claremont I used to ride up into the hills of what is now the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park and look out over the valley below, or even just glance left as I crested the Baseline / Live Oak hill at the edge of town, and notice one especially prominent structure. Eventually during one wandering-around-type road ride brought me to the F. E. Weymouth Treatment Plant, one of five large Metropolitan Water District facilities that treats water brought into the metro area from the Colorado River Aqueduct or, to a lesser degree the California Aqueduct bringing water downstate from Northern California.

Rising out of the surrounding residential neighborhood of La Verne, the largest building at the facility, a Mission Revival structure, is capped by a blue-tiled bell tower. Finished in 1940, Weymouth was the first of the MWD's filtration plants, and today provides clean water to both Los Angeles and Orange Counties. Just another of those things you see when you get out and ride.