The Allen Hazen Water Tower, also known as the Municipal Water Tower, is a historic structure located on the west side of Des Moines, Iowa. Completed in 1931, it was designed by New York engineer Clinton Mackenzie of the firm Everett & Hazen. The tower was named in honor of Allen Hazen, a pioneer in water treatment and a consulting engineer to the Des Moines Water Works in the 1920s, who died just before construction was completed.
Constructed of concrete and steel, the tower stands 110 feet (34 m) tall and holds 1.7 million gallons of water. Everett & Hazen chose a Neoclassical style to reference the waterworks of Ancient Rome. The base features 15 concrete Tuscan columns supporting an entablature. While the original design called for 16 columns and a colonnade capped with a concrete parapet, the final structure leaves the tank exposed, with lapped joints that continue the vertical lines of the base columns. An antenna caps the structure today.
At one time, a large arrow was painted on top of the structure to guide pilots to the Des Moines airport. Although there are other water storage facilities in the city, the Allen Hazen Water Tower is technically the only water tower in Des Moines. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
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