Lena Water Tower - History

History

The need for a water tower in Lena was the topic of newspaper editorials many years before the current structure was actually built in 1896. In the early 1870s fires struck a stable, a warehouse, a rural school and several houses in and around Lena. The 1871 Great Chicago Fire induced a sense of panic among many Illinoisians, including those in the village of Lena. In 1874 fire nearly destroyed the freight house and depot owned by the Illinois Central Railroad in Lena. The fires continued through the 1870s and 1880s and the Lena Star editorials led the crusade to build a water tower.

The week of June 14, 1895 workers began drilling for the new reservoir and water tower. The drill reached 400 feet (121.9 m) in depth and became stuck. It was not freed until October 1895 and work crews were forced to work double shifts to compensate. The tower structure itself began rising by early November when disaster struck the project. As a rock was being hoisted up the tower it crashed to the ground ripping through the first two floors of the structure. When a winter thaw hit the area on December 25 the mortar on the building began to crumble; the unseasonable thaw had weakened poorly mixed mortar. Citizens were outraged and blamed the newspaper for pushing the tower so furiously. The paper, in turn, blamed the faulty work of the contractor; the foundation was not large enough to support the mass of the tower structure.

In June 1896 village trustees voted to hire U.S. Wind, Engine and Pump Company from Batavia, Illinois to demolish the unstable water tower and rebuild it with a properly founded structure. On June 19, 1896 the company arrived to demolish the old structure and begin laying a new foundation using Portland cement. The tower had risen 35 feet (10.7 m) by July and by September the brick portion of the facade was completed at 100 feet (30.5 m). By October 1896 the cypress water tank was installed atop the Lena Water Tower.