Paxton Water Tower and Pump House, 1887 - Present

Credit: McLean County Museum of History

Beginning in the winter of 1886 a severe drought began in Illinois and neighboring states, Iowa and Wisconsin.  As it wore on in the spring and summer of 1887 cops began to fail and waterways began to dry up.  The Middle Fork of the Vermilion River, on which Danville relied for its water supply, had ceased to run. Many places sunk wells to get relief and a measure of safety.  Forest fires were burning up parts of Wisconsin.  Prairies caught on fire. One of them caused the great Chatsworth Train wreck. Paxton, with its many wooden buildings on Market street was vulnerable with no adequate way to fight a fire.

In the second week of July in 1887 at a Special City Council meeting Alderman Will Stine proposed forming a committee of three to explore the establishment of a water works system in Paxton. Mayor Middlecoff appointed Aldermen Busnell and Hopkins to the committee. Alderman Sackett moved that the Mayor be appointed as chairman. The motion passed with a full vote. This set in motion the quick establishment of a water works system that is still evolving to this day and the preservation of its historic elements, the water tower and pump house.

At the August meeting of the city council, ordinances were passed for construction of the water works and bonds to cover the cost of the project.  A bid was proposed for an 8 inch well to be drilled and it was won by Needham & Rupp of Chicago. The start was delayed due to not all equipment making it to the worksite.  As the drilling proceeded an ordinance was passed for specification of the new water tower and pump house.  Another ordinance was passed to establish a wooden six inch water main down the center of Market Street from the L.E.& W railroad track to Center Street.

The well was completed to a depth of 152 feet with about a 52 foot rise of water in mid-September.  During this period a bid from Fairbanks, Morse & Co. of Chicago for $6,664.00 was accepted by the city council for the construction of a brick water tower and pump house with all the necessary equipment.  The foundation was to be of six foot wide Kankakee stone set in concrete. The octagonal brick tower was to be eighty feet tall, with a thirty inch thick base tapering up to twenty inches. On top of that was a wooden tank made of pine with a capacity of 2,000 barrels. It would be surrounded by metal hoops, roofed and topped with a 25 foot flag pole.

An architectural drawing of the Paxton Water Tower and Pump House
by Rich Hanpeter, Paul Zinni and Carol Dyson from the Historical American Buildings Survey

During this period fires began to plague Paxton.  There were two fires on Market street but with valiant effort the citizens managed to minimize their damage. This further illustrated the need for a modern water works system with hydrants on Market street. In the last two months of the project there were over eight fires in the downtown area of Paxton.  It was suspected that someone was setting the fires and Mayor Middlecoff offered a $500 reward for information. No information has been found as to who was the arsonist, if there was one.

In the first week of October the foundation of the water tower was laid and work progressed quickly.  Brick came from the local brick factory in Paxton. At the beginning there were enough brick layers but on occasion they would experience a shortage.  At his 80th birthday celebration in 1951, Victor E. Johnson said his father, a mason, laid the first and last brick of the project. The last of the estimated 175,000 bricks was laid in mid-November.  Soon after the construction of the water tank began.  By the first week of December work was completed for the Paxton water works system. The system was tested and found fully operational. The city accepted the project from Fairbanks, Morse, having paid half the amount of the contract at the end of November.  With the completion of the project the remainder was paid in the first part of the next year.

In the next couple decades the usual maintenance took place on the water tank. Painting was the usual thing that took place but occasionally the roof needed work. During July 1899 the tank was painted red and white. The original color was not noted when it was constructed. In 1903 the city began to look into replacing the Fairbanks, Morse steam pump with an electric system.  It was also noted that the tank was deteriorating and needed to be repaired.  In the last half of 1903 bids were sought for a new electric pump.  The electricity would be furnished by the electric plant that was just a few blocks north of the water tower.  A new triplex pump was installed in February 1904.

The condition of the tank had deteriorated enough that the city sought to have the tank replaced with a new one made out of Louisiana tank grade, clear cypress.  It was to be twenty-five feet in diameter and twenty feet tall with a walkway around the outside.  Seven metal hoops were to bind the tank and it was to have a conical roof. A bid from Wendnagle & Co of Chicago for $1,100 was accepted at the beginning of October. This is the tank we see in the historic picture with Boots Glad and Al Kingren in front of it.  It was completed in the first week of December, 1905.

Boots Glad and Al Kingren

In August, 1924 the Moline brothers painted the tank its iconic white with Paxton painted in big black letters on the north and south side. It may be assumed that with the advent of airplanes, air travel and Paxton’s proximity to Chanute Field, having the tank painted this way was a landmark for pilots. It was also visible to the trains as they approached Paxton in the newly dug "cut".

It would be used in many ways in the next 28 years. A fire bell was attached to the tower but found in an ice storm the bell was frozen. So it was moved to the city hall and protected. Tony Fratia, operator of the Paxtonian Theater, ran an antenna wire from the water tower to the top of the theater for his amateur radio station in August 1934.  During WWII the water tower was used as an observation platform for a blackout drill. It was found that the town was completely dark during the exercise.  City Hall was often buzzed by airplanes to identify the pilots location. In reaction to that the word "Paxton" along with an arrow pointed north was painted on top of the broom factory on Railroad Avenue with aluminum paint by Warren Pacey and Ernie Moline in June 1949.

By 1950 the water tank was again in poor condition. When it was completely inspected, it was in worse shape than expected.  It was decided in 1951 that a new metal tower would be constructed on Taft Street.  A bid was accepted and by the end of July 1952 the new water tower was fully functional.  Mayor Tracey Pitzen said that the old water tank would still be filled to prevent further rot.  Later that fall in 1952 a bid would be sent out for the tank to be dismantled.  The Civilian Air Defence was using the clock tower of city hall as its observation post.  When the old water tank was removed, he said, an observation platform was proposed atop the eight foot brick tower.

In October 1952 Orvel Van Laningham won the bid to remove the unused wooden water tank for $2,450.00. It is rumored that the cypress from the tank was used by D. B. Bayles at his newly constructed Bayles Lake, five miles north of Paxton. It was either used for docks or bulkheads.

Water color by Beth Rodeen Lepper

The water tower and pump house would be used by the city for storage for decades to come.  In 1984 the Paxton Foundation was formed to preserve the historic water works complex.  The Foundation worked with Dr. W. W. Sauer, Kenyon and Associates, Architects, and the University of Illinois College of Architecture to have it designated an Illinois Historic Landmark.  This was the first step to get the water tower and pump house on the National Register of Historic Places.

The city was looking into demolishing the complex. An agreement was reached between the Paxton Foundation and the City of Paxton for the Foundation to acquire the facility.  They worked to preserve it after that.  In 2005 the pump house was leased to the Ford County Historical Society to establish a museum.  Further work on the pump house made it suitable for the museum which was opened in 2007.

Royce Baier of the Paxton Foundation was approached by Stan Foster about building a replica of the water tank to sit on top of the brick tower in 2023.  After two years of work, the tank was finished by a group of dedicated individuals. And on August 27, 2025 the new tank was set on top of the tower. The late Alderman Al Kingren said in March 1951 “We would hate to not have that white tower visible as we come into town.  It is a landmark that so many have looked forward to seeing as we came home.”   Now after about seventy years, we can now look forward to seeing it again as we come into town.

Photo by the author