Hamburgers are fast food. But in the Buffalo suburb of Hamburg, N.Y., plans to paint a water tower to look like a hamburger have been cooking for six years—and still aren’t done.
Leading the mission is retiree Chris Hannotte, who wears a burger-shaped felt hat to collect petition signatures or raise money for the cause.
Hannotte says the burger, 130 feet in the sky and near a highway, would attract tourists. Naysayers suggest it will look cheesy. “I say to them, ‘Look, don’t worry, we live in Hamburg, not Cheeseburg.’ ”
Highflying foods dot America, usually reflecting what’s made or grown below. There’s a water tower painted like a watermelon over Luling, Texas; a peach above Gaffney, S.C.; and gummy bears over the Haribo factory in Pleasant Prairie, Wis. The most-handsome towers compete in an annual beauty contest, Tank of the Year, whose motto is, “A contest that really holds water.”
Hamburg’s tower was built in 1970 and can hold 500,000 gallons, but hasn’t held a drop for 30 years. The tower is blue, rusted and has “Town of Hamburg” on the tank in fading black paint.
“It is not putting the best foot forward for Hamburg,” says Hannotte. “It begs to be painted like a hamburger.”
Resident Dan Schinzel, 72, wouldn’t mind that, but doesn’t think it will add sizzle to the local economy.
“If you’re on your way to Sandusky, Ohio,” he says, “why are you going to pull over in the town of Hamburg to look at a water tower painted like a hamburger?”
Hamburg is internationally famous for its Devonian fossils and shale outcroppings along Eighteen Mile Creek, according to the town’s website. It is also home to the Erie County Fair, which claims to be the birthplace of the hamburger in 1885, though other communities also make that boast.
“I think the painted burger would be a symbol of who we are—if they can pull it off,” says Tom Tallman, mayor of the picturesque village of Hamburg, a 2.5- square-mile area inside the town of Hamburg.
The village is home to the annual Burgerfest, where food vendors have to serve something burger related.
“The hamburger was invented in Hamburg,” says Tallman. “People can say what they think, but we’re pretty confident.”
In 2018, Hamburg residents voted on what type of burger would hover over them. The four designs submitted included one that would outline the burger in neon lights. The winner, after more than 800 votes, was by graphic artist Dylan Cownie.
“I got the works,” says Cownie, 31, whose artistic patty is garnished with eye-catching lettuce, tomato, red onion, bacon, pickles, ketchup and mustard, on a sesame bun.
Strange visitors
For the actual painting, Hannotte’s choice is local muralist Tim Martin, who has painted water towers before, including one in Lancaster, N.Y.
“It’s gonna be an awesome piece, but it won’t be my masterpiece,” Martin, 58, says. “I have my own Sistine Chapel.” He says he painted the altar and inside of a church near Buffalo.
Painting the hamburger could take six weeks or more, he says. He can’t work in the winter, because the Buffalo cold will freeze the paint. Additionally, he says, “I’m booked pretty far out.”
Schinzel doesn’t care what’s painted on the tower, as long as it’s painted. Only a chain fence with barbed wire separates his backyard from the tower. He can see it from two bedrooms, a bathroom, the kitchen and while taking a dip in the pool.
“It’s an eyesore,” he says, and painted “the most drab blue that you can think of.”
He asked the town to tear it down, but was told it costs too much to do, says Schinzel, who is retired from the local highway department.
When the “Pokémon Go” game took off, Schinzel found two people in his yard who said there was a Pokémon on the tower. He told them they were lucky his German shepherd was sleeping inside.
‘A landmark’
Hannotte, the burger booster, envisions visitors snapping selfies, and filling up their gas tanks and dining out in town. Hannotte, who previously worked for the state helping find jobs for people with disabilities, modeled plans after other dressed-up towers.
“In a lot of these smaller towns, they become a landmark,” says Brian Cheshire, director of sales at water-tower paint company Tnemec.
Tnemec, which started the Tank of the Year contest, says there were 320 entries last year. The winner: One in Bryan, Ohio, with Dum-Dum lollipops painted on the tank. The tower’s stems were painted white to look like lollipop sticks, a detail that helped it win. “This is the first time we’ve ever seen anybody actually use the legs as part of the design,” says Cheshire.
The top 12 tanks get the pinup treatment: a spot on the company’s annual calendar.
At times, the hamburger project has been on a roll.
The Buffalo News published an editorial in July, saying plainly: “Paint the Hamburg water tower like a hamburger.”
“It will provide good-humored place-making for this Southtowns community as well as give walkers, cyclists and motorists something fun to look at on their travels.”
The town of Hamburg agreed to pay for an inspection of the tower, which found it structurally sound in an October report. Town officials didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Hannotte, who has vowed not to use tax dollars, says she’s raised about $25,000 and has a long way to go.
A collection box for the project sits in town hall, and “there are people who do put money in it,” says Rose Morford, who works in the clerk’s office. “Why is beyond me.”
“I would rather see a pie up there than a hamburger,” she cracks. “Or they should paint it like an alien, sure why not?”
—Jennifer Levitz contributed to this article.
Write to Joseph Pisani at joseph.pisani@wsj.com