PEORIA MAGAZINE October 2022

S P O T L I G H T

HAVANANS ARE LOOKING UP Old water tower, at 133 years and counting, may have tourism potential as Mason County’s own little Eiffel

BY NICK VLAHOS PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

T he 133-year-old water tower that stands at Main and Pearl streets in Havana really isn’t a water tower anymore. For the past decade, it hasn’t stored water. But the structure helps store a lot of memories for longtime residents of this Illinois River city about 45 miles southwest of Peoria. According to city officials and others, the tower also might harbor economic potential. Tourism is part of the allure. Almost 30 years ago, through the work of some diligent volunteers, the tower was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. But the brick-and-steel structure also is a point of pride among the 3,000 or so Havana residents. An 86-foot-tall point of pride, to be precise. “It’s kind of iconic to Havana,” said Brenda Davenpor t-Fornof f, the community’s economic development coordinator. “It’s that landmark. You know kind of where everything is (in town) based on that.” Sa id Havana Mayor Brenda Stadsholt: “Coming to work every day, I love seeing it.” It’s hard to miss. Almost 18 feet wide at its base, the tapered tower stands on a hill that

overlooks the downtown area of the Mason County seat. Most of the five story octagonal structure is made of brick. Former city employee Rick Noble, who is among Havana’s most fervent water tower advocates, believes the brick may have been manufactured locally, given its softness, a possible byproduct of Mason County’s sandy soil. A brick kiln was operating in Havana in 1889, when the tower was built to help afford Havana adequate fire protection.

matching the original tower blueprints replaced it. “It was an old, silver flat-top tank when I first saw it as a kid,” said Jewel Bucy, the 71-year-old Havana public works director. “That thing’s been there my whole life, and it was one of those iconic things that you love to see, that old silver water tower sitting up there. It was pretty cool.” According to city documents, the F.W. Raider firm of St. Louis designed the tower, which has a lighthouse architectural style. “There’s only a couple of those around,” said Noble. Similar structures were built in the late 19th century in three other central Illinois communities. Among themwas theWoodford County village of Benson, where the tower has since been demolished. In the late 1980s, it appeared a similar fate might befall Havana’s tower, which was in disrepair. Noble was among those who helped save it, in part by finding the original blueprints, then buried among old City Hall documents. “It’s like, ‘You can’t tear this down,’” said Noble, who also leads theMasonCounty Arts Council. “This is a historic thing in the state, so we need to use that as a significant thing for the community.”

That was the same year the Eiffel Tow er in Paris was completed, Noble noted. Bricks ascend five stories to a 14½- foot base. Atop that platform, 50 feet up, sits a 50,000-gallon steel storage tank, 36 feet in height. The top of the tank was open to the sky until the 1950s, when a flat metal roof was added. A cone-shaped roof

64 OCTOBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE