A crucial skyline element, water towers can offer a smile
We were in a little artsy shop in the little artsy town of Makanda in southern Illinois when I spotted a coffee mug sporting a familiar image of a happy water tower.
“Look, they have a River Oaks mug!” I shouted to my wife, Tonya.
Indeed, the cup depicted a yellow water tower decorated with a smiling face and bow tie, just like Calumet City’s iconic “Mr. Smiley” tower near River Oaks Shopping Center.
But the store keeper became irritated. “That’s OUR tower,” she said.
As it turns out, Makanda, the “Gateway to Giant City,” also has a smiley face painted on its yellow water tower. A bow tie was added in honor of the late U.S. senator and Makanda native Paul Simon after his death in the mid-2000s.
I didn’t argue with the shopkeeper, but I also didn’t purchase the mug, though I kind of regret that now.
I never regret not arguing, though. In this case, maybe Makanda had the idea first.
Probably not. Quick internet research didn’t reveal much about the Makanda structure other than a vague assertion it was decorated in the early 1970s. The Calumet City smilers are backed by facts and a bit of suburban legend.
Mike Wolski, president of the Calumet City Historical Society, said the happy towers were the brainchild of an actual child, Kim Fornero, who lived in the shadow of one of them after they were erected without any adornment in the late 1960s.
“She wrote a letter to the mayor and said the water tower would look better with a smiley face on it.” Wolski said. “She sent a sample drawing. The City Council liked it, and within months they approved it.”
The Tribune corroborated Fornero’s involvement in a 1990 story, in which Fornero, then in her 20s, said she still loved her hometown’s happy towers.
“I think they make people smile,” she told columnist Eric Zorn. “Everyone needs that.”
In July 1973, the city’s two newish water towers were painted yellow and affixed with
happy faces. Not long afterward, “they decided they would make it a his and hers,” Wolski said. “The ‘his’ has a bow tie and the ‘hers’ doesn’t.”
Around the time Makanda’s tower acquired its Paul Simon bow tie, the Calumet City tower without a bow tie was painted pink and added a ribbon to promote breast cancer awareness.
Wolski said to his knowledge the Cal City towers were the first personable ones in the area, but it’s possible other towns may have had the same idea independently around the same time. No matter where the idea originated, people have an affinity for their towns’ elevated water supply, perhaps because they’re the main component of the skyline in most suburbs.
Many municipalities have adopted their water towers as unofficial symbols, and in some cases, they appear in the official insignia. Such is the case in Homewood, where the 1930s riveted water tower with its signature conical roof has been incorporated into the village logo. That logo might have to be updated if a village plan to tear down the tower and build a new one elsewhere comes to fruition.
Others have become part of the wider regional consciousness because of their proximity to well-traveled roads.
Thousands of people trucking past on the Tri-State Tollway every day probably don’t know the village of Worth is named for a general who fought in the Mexican-American War, but they do probably think of the town as friendly even if, like the general, they’ve never visited the area.
That’s because the village’s water tower adjacent to the Tollway has advertised Worth as “The Friendly Village” for more than a half century. The water tower appears in the village’s logo on its website, but there’s not much else there that reveals why it’s such a friendly place and how it came to be known as such.
When looking for information, it’s almost always a good idea to consult a librarian, and Tim White of the Worth Public Library didn’t disappoint. According to materials he sleuthed from the stacks, prospective politician Bill Schneider visited every home in the village when he was running for a seat on the Village Board in 1957, proclaiming Worth “has the friendliest people around.” In a decidedly unfriendly move, Worth residents handed Schneider an election defeat.
He later was appointed to the Board to fill a vacancy, where he was able to put his promotion of Worth friendliness into action, and by 1966, the village’s water tower was spreading the message. Now, the tower has become more identified with the village than friendliness itself, and it figures large in Worth’s municipal logo.
A bit down the road, another structure is an even more prominent way marker. Installed in 1967, Alsip’s big red water tower is one of two in the village that can hold a million gallons.
Though they look larger than most, Dan Tryban, Alsip’s water commissioner, said that’s because of their design.
“This is what’s considered a pedestal style, with a wider base,” he said. “It’s not that much bigger than other ones.”
Plus, he said, one tower’s position right up next to a bend in the Tollway allows motorists to “see it up close.”
“It’s a great advertisement for the community,” Tryban said. “We take pride in it.”
There’s no slogan beyond the village’s name on the towers, but they do evoke patriotism with their colors and painted stars. That was intentional, Tryban said.
“It was the first time they needed to be repainted, and it was right after the Bicentennial in 1976,” he said. “They chose to go with a flag motif and give it a bit of flair rather than keeping them just red.”
Alsip’s water towers also get some additional flair each December when one is topped with a 20-foot Christmas tree and the other is adorned with an illuminated star.
Like in other towns, Alsip’s towers figure prominently in branding and publications, including from the Alsip Chamber of Commerce.
Marigrace SinnottSnooks, the chamber’s executive director, said it’s an easy way to identify the village’s Tollway exit.
“It’s a good identifying marker for businesses,” she said, noting that it adds a certain amount of prestige to the village. “A lot of communities don’t have an identifying marker like that.”
Of course, the real job of the towers isn’t to advertise but to ensure residents have water supply and pressure. By maintaining a level of water in the towers by pumping water up from ground reservoirs, they allow gravity to supply the force needed to keep water pressure consistent throughout the village.
Alsip has a couple of big, industrial customers that keep the demand for water high, including a Coca-Cola bottling plant that Tryban said can use upward of a half million gallons every day. But providing safe drinking water is a crucial service for even the smallest users, in every town.
An essential element of the suburban skyline, it’s nice when the towers can provide additional value, if just a sense of municipal pride.
Or even just a smile or two.