Chicago Water Tower

The Chicago Water Tower is one of the landmarks of Chicago.

The tower, which was built in 1869 of yellowish limestone on North Michigan Avenue, one of the few buildings in Chicago, which survived the Great Fire of Chicago in 1871. Architect William W. Boyington was commissioned as inconspicuously as possible to integrate the central drinking water pumping station of the city in a building. What it came out was a neo-Gothic castle with turrets cheesy acting and battlements, which was ridiculed by the people.

He is one of the oldest buildings in the city and is the second oldest water tower in the United States, only the Water Tower in Louisville is older. In the pump house a gallery and a visitors' center of the Chicago Office of Tourism are set up today.