Hofmann Tower is the name of a tower in

Lyons, Illinois Lyons is a village in Lyons Township, Cook County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 10,817. The Chicago Portage National Historic Site is located in Lyons. History Lyons was incorporated in 1888, though activit ...

. It was built in 1908 and was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on December 22, 1978. Hofmann Tower is featured prominently in two books written by Rose Marie Benedetti and Virginia C. Bulat entitled ''Lyons: A history of a village and area important for 300 years'' (1959) and ''Portage, pioneers, and pubs: A history of Lyons, Illinois'' (1963). George Hofmann, Jr., a local brewer built a dam on the

Des Plaines River The Des Plaines River () is a river that flows southward for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed May 13, 2011 through southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois''American Her ...

to generate electricity. He also built the adjacent tower as part of a park that attracted visitors to picnic and ride boats. In the 1970s, Rose Marie Benedetti and Maureen S. Kiener worked closely with the preservation efforts of the Village of Lyons Historical Commission to have Hofmann Tower designated a village and state landmark and placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

References

Towers completed in 1908 Buildings and structures in Cook County, Illinois Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Cook County, Illinois History of Illinois Park buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois 1908 establishments in Illinois Illinois State Historic Sites {{CookCountyIL-NRHP-stub