Volunteer Park Water Tower: A 1906 Standpipe With a View

At the top of Capitol Hill, the Seattle Water Department finished an architecturally distinctive water tower in 1906. It had two jobs: to improve water pressure in the high service area of Capitol Hill, and to give Volunteer Park an observation deck. From outside it is a 76-foot brick tower. Inside is an 883,000-gallon steel standpipe. [1]

The park came first. In 1876 the recently incorporated city bought a forty-acre tract at the very top of the hill from James M. Colman for $2000, without saying what it was for. Capitol Hill was then beyond the city limits, remote and heavily wooded. The land was called Lake View Park in 1887, then City Park, and in 1901 it was named Volunteer Park, honoring those who had volunteered for the 1898 Spanish-American War. It has grown to 48 acres. A reservoir was finished there in 1901 as part of the new Cedar River Water System. [1]

The tower was the Olmsted Brothers' idea. In 1903 the city hired the landscape firm to plan a park and boulevard system, with Volunteer Park first on the list. Their report said an observation tower at the summit would be worthwhile, since development of the neighborhood would eventually block distant views, and that it should be 'high enough to obtain the view' and 'large enough to accommodate considerable numbers.' By 1906 the idea had been combined with the need for more water pressure and more reliable service on Capitol Hill. After Queen Anne Tanks No. 1 and No. 2, it was the third standpipe built for the Cedar River system. [1]

The brick hides what is inside. A clinker brick exterior with three stone bands and a conical roof fit the fashionable neighborhood and hid the tower's utilitarian job. Little outside gives it away except four small pipes near the base. Over the north and south entrances, stone pediments are incised 'AQUA PURA - MCMVI.' A plaque by the north entrance, dedicated in 1930, honors L. B. Youngs, superintendent of the Seattle Water Department from 1895 to 1923, under whom the Cedar River Water System was planned and installed. [1]

Inside, the steel tank nearly fills the tower. It is some 50 feet across, made of riveted plates set in nine bands. Between the tank and the brick walls, two spiral stairways, a double helix of 106 stairs each, wind up to the observation deck. Sixteen arched openings at the top give a 360-degree view, and the deck holds a permanent exhibit on the history of Seattle's park system. The park itself was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and is recognized as the most fully realized of all the Olmsted plans for Seattle's parks. [1]