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| Pullman Virtual Museum | THE PULLMAN COMPANY | The Water Tower |
THE WATER TOWER
The water tower was located northeast of the Administration Building just
outside the State Historic Site property. Its importance lies in the structural
technology employed in its “cage frame” construction. It was 70’ square at
the base and 195’ high, making it the tallest building west of New York
(surpassed only by Richard Morris Hunt’s 260’ high Tribune Building in NYC).
Its load-bearing capacity was also much greater than virtually any other
building in the country.
The interior floors of the structure were supported by four massive phoenix
columns resting on large, cone shaped concrete foundation piles. These columns
were terminated at the eighth floor, where the two-story 500,000-gallon
octagonal fire suppression water storage tank was located. The size of this tank
and its height above the ground made for a water pressure of about 75 psi.
Potable water was purchased from Hyde Park Township (which included the Town of
Pullman) and later the City of Chicago after Hyde Park was annexed into the city
in 1893. Every house had iron sinks and faucets in the kitchen.
The 40’ subbasement contained three water pumps, four sewage pumps, and a
300,000 gallon sewage reservoir. All of the town’s sewage was collected in
this cistern then pumped to a company owned farm south near 130th Street where
it was used as fertilizer. The floors between the water tanks contained shops
where female employees made details such as tassels for the Pullman Cars. After
manufacturing operations ceased in the water tower, the space was used to store
engineering and accounting records.
The water tower was unintentionally demolished in 1957 when the Pullman company
was preparing the original and now obsolete manufacturing properties for
subdivision. An ill-fated attempt to raze a nearby smoke stack resulted in the
smoke stack collapsing into the water tower. The water tower was considered
damaged beyond repair and razed. The building rubble was used to fill in the
sewage cistern.
A Dairy farm, located near the sewage area, consisted of 420 acres by 1890 and
supported 80 to 100 cattle. Sewage slurry from the water tower cistern was
pumped here and used to fertilize the farm.
Icehouses were maintained by the company as a paying investment. The icehouse
workers in the winter worked in the brickyards in the summer.
The foundation of the water tower was excavated in 2000 during a capital project
on the site that triggered archeology mandates of a National Register Site.
During the excavation, Pullman State Historic Site rescued building remnants
that had been buried in the cistern for nearly a half century. Some of the water
tower artifacts have been incorporated into the landscape of a community park at
111th and Langley Streets while others are stored for future exhibition and
interpretation. They are visible at the northeast corner of the state historic
site near the former site of the Corliss steam engine.
<< Click here to see images of the water tower from our collection >>
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© Copyright 2006, Pullman Preservation Alliance |
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