Water Tower

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Laying of the cornerstone for the Water Tower, March 25, 1867; Photograph (ichi-64424)

Laying of the cornerstone for the Water Tower, March 25, 1867; Photograph (ichi-64424)

Designed by W. W. Boyington and dedicated at a great celebration in March of 1867, including a grand parade whose participants made their way uncertainly from downtown through Chicago’s muddy streets, the new Chicago waterworks featured several major pieces of infrastructure:  the limestone Water Tower and Pumping Station on either side of Pine Street (now Michigan Avenue) at Chicago Avenue, and a two-mile tunnel beneath the lake, at the end of which was an intake known as the “crib.”  The Water Tower and Pumping Station were designed by W. W. Boyington in what the Board of Public Works called the “castellated Gothic” style, touched off with battlemented cornices. 

The waterworks system was conceived by City Engineer Ellis S. Chesbrough, who had been brought to Chicago in 1855 to solve expanding Chicago's drainage problems shortly after his successful service on Boston’s Cochituate Waterworks.  Chesbrough was instrumental in the decision to raise the city’s grade to improve drainage.  He proposed the 1860s waterworks not only to meet the needs of Chicago’s rapidly rising population but also to draw water from far enough out in the lake so that it would not be contaminated by the unspeakably polluted Chicago River, which at that time flowed into the lake.  This tactic proved only partially effective, and the river’s flow was eventually reversed in the last decade of the century by yet another titanic public works project, the construction of the Sanitary and Ship Canal.

Chicago Water Works; Louis Kurz for Jevne & Almini, Lithograph, 1866-67 (ichi-06859)

Chicago Water Works; Louis Kurz for Jevne & Almini, Lithograph, 1866-67 (ichi-06859)

The view is northeast along Chicago Avenue.  At this point, before the shoreline had been substantially extended with fill, the Pumping Station was a short distance from the lake.

Chicago Waterworks after the Fire; from a Stereograph, 1871 (ichi-13918)

Chicago Waterworks after the Fire; from a Stereograph, 1871 (ichi-13918)

A small crowd of men and a pair of isolated women contemplate the fire's work. In the Eleventh Annual Report of the Board of Public Works (1872), city engineer (and later mayor) DeWitt Cregier wrote, "The flames from this time spread with such rapidity that the whole neighborhood for blocks around became a 'sea of fire,' thus at about 3 o'clock in the morning of the 9th of October the pumping works became an utter wreck, nothing but the naked walls of the building and the broken and blackened skeletons of three engines were left to mark the spot from whence only a few hours before flowed millions of gallons of pure water for the comfort and convenience of our citizens."

Chicago Avenue Water Tower and Pumping Station; Photograph, ca. 1890 (ichi-05902)

Chicago Avenue Water Tower and Pumping Station; Photograph, ca. 1890 (ichi-05902)

The viewpoint here is much the same as in the Jevne & Almini lithograph.  Even at this point late in the nineteenth century, by which time the city's population had surpassed one million, the area by the Water Tower was not heavily developed.

The Water Tower, View South along Michigan Avenue; Chicago Daily News, Photograph, 1929 (DN-0020190)

The Water Tower, View South along Michigan Avenue; Chicago Daily News, Photograph, 1929 (DN-0020190)

The completion of the Michigan Avenue Bridge in 1920 joined Michigan Avenue below the river and Pine Street above it into a single street.  The  “boulevarding” of Michigan Avenue on both sides of the river also widened it considerably.  Handsome new office buildings, starting with the Wrigley Building and the Tribune Tower, began to spring up north of the river, leading to the creation of what became known as the “Magnificent Mile,” between the Main Branch of the Chicago River and just beyond the Water Tower.  We see this development clearly in this view from just north of the tower.

The Water Tower; Kaufman & Fabry, Photograph, 1929 (ichi-29600)

The Water Tower; Kaufman & Fabry, Photograph, 1929 (ichi-29600)

Another view down Michigan Avenue in the late 1920s.  Note the relatively modest height of buildings surrounding the Water Tower at this time, especially to its north, so that at this point it was still one of the tallest buildings in the vicinity.

Aerial View Michigan Ave and Oak Street Beach; Photograph, ca. 1925 (ichi 05789_v2)

Aerial View Michigan Ave and Oak Street Beach; Photograph, ca. 1925 (ichi 05789_v2)

The Water Tower and Pumping Station (circled in the center right of the photograph) face each other across North Michigan Avenue amidst a cityscape completely transformed from that of the post-fire era.  Nearby sites include Holy Name Cathedral and the Newberry Library a few blocks to the southwest and northwest, the Wrigley Building to the south, the Drake Hotel to the north, and Lincoln Park beyond.  The Streeterville neighborhood east of the Pumping Station is still only partially developed.