Old Fresno Water Tower, Water tower and tourism office in downtown Fresno, United States.
The Old Fresno Water Tower is a 109-foot (33 m) brick tower in the American Romanesque style, designed by George Washington Maher and completed in 1894. Its painted brick exterior rises in stages to a tile roof, with a balcony about halfway up supported by iron corbels. The walls consist of a 2-foot (61 cm) inner brick wall and a 14-inch (36 cm) outer wall separated by a 3-foot (91 cm) gap. The 250,000 US gal (950,000 L) tank remains inside.
Chicago architect George Washington Maher was commissioned in 1891 to design the tower, influenced by the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which destroyed the Chicago Public Library but spared the Chicago Water Tower that then served as a temporary library. Construction finished in November 1894 at a cost of $20,000. The tower supplied water until 1963, when its pumping equipment became inadequate; it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 14, 1971.
Since 2014 the Fresno Arts Council has managed the tower, which now holds an art gallery. The first floor spent years as a parking meter repair facility before the 2001 conversion into the Fresno and Fresno County visitors' center.
The tower stands at the corner of Fresno and O Streets in downtown Fresno, a short walk from the Fulton Mall. Its ground floor holds the Fresno County visitors' center and an art gallery run by the Fresno Arts Council since 2014. The second floor was removed during the 2001 renovation, so the interior is a single tall space.
A three-foot-wide passage runs between the outer and inner walls throughout the entire height of the tower. This hidden corridor once served maintenance purposes and now creates an intriguing architectural feature that visitors can explore while moving through the building.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 94,038 contributors worldwide.