The scupper was a hole in the wall at the edge of a flat roof. A rectangular opening lined with copper or lead that let the rainwater drain off the roof and out through the wall. The scupper was the building's emergency exit for water. When it rained the water collected on the flat roof and the scupper was the door the water used to leave. One hole in the right place and the roof stayed dry. One hole in the wrong place and you had a waterfall on the sidewalk.

The scupper had a conductor head. A metal box attached to the wall below the scupper that caught the water and funneled it into the downspout. The conductor head was usually decorated. Shaped like a funnel with scrollwork or a date or the initials of the building's owner pressed into the copper. The conductor head was the building's signature in a place nobody looked. The plumber who installed it was also a calligrapher. He just worked in copper instead of ink.

The scupper clogged. Leaves and tar and pigeon feathers blocked the opening and the water could not get out and the flat roof became a swimming pool. A clogged scupper in a February freeze turned the roof into a skating rink and the ice weighed more than the roof was built for. The scupper clogged because nobody went to the roof to clean it. The scupper needed a visit once a year and it did not get one because the roof was not a place people went unless they had to.

You could hear the scupper. Rain on a flat roof running toward the scupper was the sound of water finding the exit. A rush and then a gurgle as the water hit the conductor head and dropped into the downspout. The scupper was the building's drain and the drain had a voice. Heavy rain and the scupper roared. Light rain and the scupper whispered. The scupper was the building talking about the weather to anybody on the top floor who was listening.

They replaced the scupper with an internal drain. A pipe in the middle of the roof that goes straight down through the building. No hole in the wall. No conductor head. No decoration. The water goes down the pipe inside the wall and you do not hear it and you do not see it and you do not know the roof is draining. The scupper put the water outside where you could watch it leave. The internal drain hides the water inside the wall. We keep hiding things inside the walls and wondering why the building does not talk to us anymore.

See also: Roof Tar, Gutter Pipe