Dell Rapids Water Tower

Dell Rapids Water Tower
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
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Location	10th and Orleans, Dell Rapids, South Dakota
Coordinates	43°49′47″N 96°42′32″W
Area	less than one acre
Built	1894 (1894)
NRHP reference No.	84003356[1]
Added to NRHP	February 23, 1984

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]

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

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
2. 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.
3. "Dell Rapids Granite Water Tower" (PDF). Archaeology & Historic Preservation Month 2013. South Dakota State Historical Society. Retrieved March 9, 2014.