Built St. Louis

Throughout the United States, there are reputed to be a total of seven surviving historic standpipe towers*, such as those shown here. One of them, located in downtown Chicago, is famed and revered as a cherished city landmark.

Eat your heart out, Chicago. St. Louis has three of them -- all well-preserved and exquisitely beautiful.

* -- the origin of this statistic, often seen in literature on St. Louis's architecture, is unclear. A simple web search reveals that there are dozens of Victorian-era water towers left in the United States. What appears to be more rare are dedicated standpipe towers, used not to store water but to control surges in pressure. True water towers are generally shorter and more massive, as opposed to the tall, thin profiles of the St. Louis towers. In addition to Chicago's tower, another ornate standpipe tower survives in Milwaukee; I have no information on the other reputed towers.

And at the northeast edge of the city stand two more bizarre and lovely relics of the city's water control system: two intake towers, standing in the center of the Mississippi River's churning waters.

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