Chicago Water Tower
- Architect
- William W. Boyington
- Style
- Gothic Revival
- City
- Chicago, IL
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The Chicago Water Tower is a 182.5-foot tower at 806 Michigan Avenue that once housed a 138-foot standpipe regulating water pressure across the city and supplying firefighters. Designed in 1869 by William W. Boyington, it became a civic icon after surviving the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 while the buildings around it burned to the ground.
the building
The standpipe inside. The tower's job was hydraulic: a 138-foot standpipe inside housed a large water pump and let engineers regulate pressure to control water surges and supply firefighting crews, working alongside the adjacent Chicago Avenue Pumping Station.
the style
Boyington built the tower in the Gothic Revival style, giving a purely utilitarian structure — a standpipe housing — the castellated look of a small fortress, part of why it became a symbol of the city's survival after 1871.
More on Gothic Revivalthe architect
William W. Boyington designed the Water Tower in 1869; he also designed Chicago's Soldiers' Home, the city's last surviving building with a direct link to the Civil War.
significance
The tower survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and today anchors the Old Chicago Water Tower District, a National Register of Historic Places listing; the nearby Water Tower Place development took its name from it, and the tower now serves as an art gallery for the Chicago Office of Tourism.
nearby
- Chicago Avenue Pumping Station
- Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago
- 875 North Michigan Avenue
- Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago
- Sofitel Chicago Water Tower
- Palmolive Building