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Water Tower Visitors Center

Fresno's historic Water Tower serves as the City's primary visitors center. During your next visit to Fresno, stop by the Water Tower Visitors Center to:

• Pick up maps of Fresno;
• Find information about attractions and lodging facilities;
• Learn about the historic Water Tower; and
• Sign our digital guest book and receive CVB’s monthly e-newsletter and weekly epostcard (beginning Spring 2009).

Location

2444 Fresno Street
Fresno, CA 93721

Hours of Operation

Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., excluding holidays.

History

The graceful and historic Fresno Water Tower was completed in 1894 at the corner of Fresno and “O” Streets, for a cost of $20,000. It was actually the second water tower to exist on the site, replacing a wooden structure built seven years earlier that was deemed inadequate for future city growth and considered an eyesore.

Chicago architect George Washington Maher was commissioned to design Fresno’s Water Tower in 1891. The tower was completed in 1894, and was in constant use until 1963. The design was patterned after a water tower in Worms, Germany.

The Water Tower stands at 109 feet high. A round interior wall supports the storage tank htat held 250,000 gallons of water. Steel imported from Sweden was used to make the tank. One of the two pipes visible inside the tower was used to draw water from an underground well and move it into the storage tank. The other pipe brought water down from the tank and transported it to the customer. The pipes, brick, mortar—in fact, the building itself—are original.

The tower is constructed of red brick and has a three foot thick inner wall and an outer wall about nine inches thick. There is a passage, or hollow space, about three feet wide between the two walls. The outside of the tower has a stucco surface over the brick construction.

The Water Tower was shut down in 1963 when it was found that its pumping machinery could no longer keep up with the demand of a growing Fresno. For six years after that, the City of Fresno used the building as a parking meter repair shop.

The structure was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and was declared an American Water Landmark in 1972.

The Water Tower was featured on the CBS-TV television series “Fresno” in 1986.

The Fresno Convention and Visitors Bureau, with help from the City of Fresno, Fresno County, Downtown Rotary Club and numerous private individuals, spent two years and more than $500,000 to renovate the building. The interior of the tower was removed to make room for the Visitors Center, which opened in June 2001 As a part of this remodeling, a landscaped plaza and separate restroom building was built adjacent to the tower.

The Water Tower today remains Fresno’s most distinctive and enduring architectural symbol.