The awe-inspiring Minneapolis water tower protected by 8-ton stone guardians
MINNEAPOLIS – Take a stroll through any old town in Minnesota, and the first thing you'll notice is the water tower.
There's a teapot in Lindstrom, and a fishing bobber in Pequot Lakes. Rochester has a giant corn cob, and Ogilvie has a medieval-looking fortress.
Minneapolis alone has quite the variety. From the Witch's Hat, to the Kenwood standpipe. But when it comes to pure architecture, the Washburn tower stands alone.
Tom Balcom once wrote about the history of this little-known place.
"It all started in the 1880s when this was farmland, way outside the city of Minneapolis," Balcom said.
He says the first tower in the Tangletown neighborhood was made of brick and supplied water to a local orphanage.
"There's a tunnel that goes right into the middle of the water tower," he said.
But as Minneapolis expanded, it outgrew tower number one. So in 1931, tower number two was built out of concrete, and with some added company.
"Around the base of the tower you can see what are called 'Guardians of Health,'" he said.
There are eight of them in all. Architect Harry Wild Jones helped designed the guardians, which are also known as "water soldiers." Jones wanted them there because at the time typhoid, an infection that spreads through water, was making people sick in Minneapolis.
Each of the guardians is nearly 30-feet tall from the ground to the top of the helmet. And each one weighs about 8 tons.
They are sort of like Roman statues you'd find in Europe. While they guard the water, eagles keep an eye on the neighborhood. Each of them weighs about 5 tons. Jones added them after a construction worker was attacked by an eagle while building his home. Both man and raptor survived the confrontation.
These days it's not unusual to see people exercising here. Iris Phlum and Michella Dekker are professional snowboard racers. Dekker is from The Netherlands.
"It's super impressive. You can do a very nice workout here, so it's perfect," Dekker said.
The city stopped using the Washburn standpipe in 2005, but people still look at it as a symbol for the neighborhood.
Volunteers help keep the park clean, and a fence has been added to protect what the guardians can't. It's proof that no matter where you live, there's so much more to these towers than meets the eye.
"Hopefully it will be here for many more years and decades to come," Balcom said.
The tower, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, is named after William D. Washburn. He was a Minneapolis businessman whose family founded the Washburn-Crosby Company, which was the forerunner to General Mills. The company also bought a radio station in the 1920s, and changed its call letters to "WCCO."
When the weather warms up, Balcom gives tours of the park, and of the century-old homes in the neighborhood.
