I’m fascinated by pipe railing. It’s beautiful for its strength, simplicity, durability and adaptability. Often two tiered tubular metal with a top and mid rail strung between uprights of the same material, it shows a kind of industrial chic. It’s most common in mill towns that reached their apex in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In my hometown of Collinsville, Connecticut, once the axe and machete capital of the world, it’s found as fences and barriers at the edge of walkways and roads, as exterior and interior banisters along stairs and ramps, topping stonewalls and parapets, and anywhere a sturdy handrail might be needed.
The origin of pipe rail is obscure, but my architect friends surmise that the concept was born of an opportunistic functionality. Steel and iron pipe were materials commonly found around nineteenth century factories. When railings were required nearby, pipe seemed a natural choice. It was strong, readily available, and easily fabricated by connecting straight pieces with tees, and elbows. Perhaps originally designed for carrying water or wastes, and meant to be hidden underground or in basements
Pipe railing became universally popular because it is relatively cheap and easy to design and install. It’s found in places as diverse as Chicago’s Wrigley Field and modernist houses. It’s still used, though often fabricated and welded without the bulbous connectors that were employed back-in-the-day. Such fittings are ornamentally utilitarian and give the railings comfortable scale. Some manufacturers claim that pipe railings with fittings last as much as seven times longer than welded ones, and are easier to repair. Even when some uprights are partially rotted with rust and the rails are bent from some long ago impact, the old ones still have sufficient strength to steady the most awkward individual.
Traditional pipe railing places a community in a certain time and speaks to its communal purpose. It ties a place to other similarly situated places. It’s a minor attribute that speaks to a larger and more enduring spirit. Pipe railing was probably devised in a flash of brilliance born of opportunity and necessity. Such pipe dreams are what make for civic vibrancy.
