The Dell Rapids Water Tower is a stone water tower located at 10th and Orleans Streets in Dell Rapids, South Dakota. Dell Rapids had a large fire in 1888, which burned the south side of Main Street. A few years later another fire destroyed the office of the newspaper, The Dell Rapids Times. The editor campaigned that a water system should be constructed. A water works was developed and the town's first water tower was built in 1894.[2]
Dell Rapids Water Tower | |
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| Location | 10th and Orleans, Dell Rapids, South Dakota |
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| Coordinates | 43°49′47″N 96°42′32″W / 43.82972°N 96.70889°W |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1894 |
| NRHP reference No. | 84003356[1] |
| Added to NRHP | February 23, 1984 |
The 45-foot (14 m) water tower is built with Sioux quartzite, a type of red-pink rock found in southern South Dakota, southwest Minnesota, and northwest Iowa. The tower provided water to Dell Rapids until 1960, when the city constructed a new tower. It is the only stone water tower remaining in South Dakota.[3]
The tower was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 23, 1984.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ Mathis, Gregory. "STEEL WATER TOWERS ASSOCIATED WITH SOUTH DAKOTA WATER SYSTEMS, 1894-1967: An Historic Context" (PDF). South Dakota State Historic Preservation Office. p. 19. Retrieved March 1, 2024.
- ^ "Dell Rapids Granite Water Tower" (PDF). Archaeology & Historic Preservation Month 2013. South Dakota State Historical Society. Retrieved March 9, 2014.