Existing American water towers are useful to represent the basic split between the two opposing architectures of the early twentieth century. One group of civic decision-makers (and their lackey-designers) assumed that a water tower ought to look like anything other than what it was. Better it should resemble a Renaissance fortress, a Gothic steeple, a Corinthian column, an Islamic spire, a French chateau
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| Scituate, Massachusetts |
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| Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
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| Detroit, Michicgan |
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| Charleston, South Carolina |
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| Saint Louis, Missouri |
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| Saint Louis, Missouri |
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| Saint Louis, Missouri |
The utilitarian, up-to-date, industrial-minded school thought the opposite, and their water towers could not easily be mistaken for anything other than what they were
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| San Jose, California |
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| Townsend, Delaware |
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| Rantoul, Illinois |
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| Elysian, Minnesota |
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| Mercury, Nevada |
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| Pemberton, New Jersey |
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| Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
Photographs from picture archives at the
Library of Congress.