By Chris Spangler
Contributor
When I first came to Fort Atkinson more than four decades ago, the city’s skyline was punctuated by two “spires.” One was of the clocktower at St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church and the other, the neighboring watertower built in 1901.
Now, the watertower looked rather different than it does today. With graffiti spraypainted by the Class of Nineteensomething and chunks of mortar falling from in between the bricks, it was well worn, having sat 112 feet above South High Street across from Fort Atkinson’s senior high and then middle school since the turn of the century. The tank actually hadn’t held water since 1989, and at one time, the city budgeted $30,000 to tear it down.
Thankfully, in rode the guys in the white hats: The Fort Atkinson Historic Preservation Commission formed a Watertower Committee and received the go-ahead for preserving the structure from the city and School District of Fort Atkinson, on whose land it sits.
As it always does, the community threw its support behind the project, generously contributing money to restore the tower not as a working part of the utility system, but simply as a local attraction. The brick was sandblasted and repaired, graffiti was removed, and interior stairs were inspected; metal bands were placed around the tower to make it more structurally sound; and landscaping gave it the finishing touches.
The pricetag: Well over several-hundred-thousand-dollars.
Today, what’s known as the 1901 watertower is opened several times a year so visitors may climb the stairs and view the cityscape and countryside from 902 feet above sea level. (You can see some great photos of it at https://www.wisconsinhistoricalmarkers.com/2017/05/fort-atkinson-water-tower-1901.html.)
It is listed on both the state and national Registers of Historic Places, of course, and is a wonderful representative of the beginning of municipal services and the birth of the modern City of Fort Atkinson. Moreover, it is one of only a small handful of municipal watertowers like it left in Wisconsin.
Which brings me to my point.
All this week, the Sheboygan Press and USA Today Network are holding a bracket contest of 16 of Wisconsin’s standout watertowers. Fort Atkinson made the list, thank you very much, and now everyone needs to register their vote so it makes it to the end.
First, visit https://sheboyganpress.secondstreetapp.com/Whats-the-best-water-tower-in-Wisconsin/ and then choose your favorite tower in each bracket. The winners of the new rounds will be announced Tuesday and Wednesday, with the finals on Thursday and the top tower declared Friday.
The field of watertowers is varied, and there is some stiff competition. Beloit has a cool block tower built out of limestone in 1885, while the three long-legged Kohler watertowers look like something out of “Star Wars.” A variety of the towers bear creative graphics, including Eagle’s yellow happy face that many readers likely know well.
Sun Prairie’s watertower is eerily similar to ours, but even though it’s on the historic registers, I doubt it has been rehabbed so that visitors can climb to the top for a birdseye view. Another apparent copycat is the watertower at Lincoln Park in Monroe, where I was born and just a few blocks from where I lived the first two years of my life.
But do not worry: I cast my ballot for Fort Atkinson’s South High Street beauty!
And now, you should go do that, too!
Fort Atkinson’s South High Street 1901-built watertower.
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