The Kalamazoo State Hospital Water Tower is located in

Kalamazoo, Michigan Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolit ...

. It was built in 1895 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 March 16, 1972. It is located on the grounds of the

Kalamazoo Regional Psychiatric Hospital The Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital (KRPH) is the largest mental health institution in Michigan. It was built under the Kirkbride Plan. History The Kalamazoo Regional Psychiatric Hospital officially opened on 29 August 1859 under the direction of ...

History

The Kalamazoo Regional Psychiatric Hospital was founded in 1859 and soon became a landmark in American medicine. Buildings on the grounds were

Thomas Kirkbride Thomas Story Kirkbride (July 31, 1809December 16, 1883) was a physician, alienist, hospital superintendent for the Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital, and primary founder of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions ...

and Samuel Sloan, nationally renowned hospital architects. The buildings they designed were reminiscent of medieval designs. In 1895, architect William B. Stratton from

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

was commissioned to design a water tower on site. Stratton was instructed to come up with a structure that would complement the medieval feeling of the other buildings on the hospital grounds. Construction was completed in 1895. The tower has been struck by lightning multiple times, and the roof was eventually replaced with copper sheeting. The structure was earmarked by the State of Michigan for demolition in 1974. However, a local committee called the Committee to Save the Tower launched a campaign to raise public funds to restore the tower.

Description

The tower is 175 feet tall. The base stone blocks are five feet high; above this point the tower is made of bricks. It is approximately 50 feet wide at its widest point. The outer shell tapers from six feet thick at the base to four feet at the top. The tower has three water storage tanks inside. The main tank is 40 feet high and 40 feet in diameter and can hold more than 200,000 gallons of hard water. Two smaller tanks flank the main tank and hold soft water. Above the tanks is a "look-out" structure with a steeply pitched roof covered with copper sheeting.

References

Towers completed in 1895 Water towers in Michigan Buildings and structures in Kalamazoo, Michigan Towers in Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Kalamazoo County, Michigan Water towers on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan {{Michigan-NRHP-stub