The Western Springs Water Tower is a museum and former

water tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system, distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towe ...

Western Springs, Illinois Western Springs is a village located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, and is a suburb of Chicago. As of the 2010 census, the village had a total population of 12,975. It is twinned with Rugeley, Staffordshire, United Kingdom. In July 1962 ...

. The stone tower is tall and in diameter. Construction on the tower began in 1892 and finished in 1893. Civil engineers Benezette Williams, Edgar Williams, and Ethan Philbrick designed the tower. In addition to holding water, the tower originally held the Western Springs police department, jail, and municipal offices. The village services all left the tower in 1968, and the Western Springs Historical Society opened a village museum in the tower two years later. In 1991, a lightning strike set the tower on fire, destroying the water tank; the museum reopened in 1993 after extensive rehabilitation efforts. The water tower is considered a symbol of Western Springs by residents, and multiple businesses and local organizations have taken their names from the tower. The water tower 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 June 4, 1981.

References

Infrastructure completed in 1892 Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Cook County, Illinois Western Springs, Illinois Water towers on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois {{CookCountyIL-NRHP-stub