The Humboldt Water Tower looks over the city as one of its tallest buildings. (Facebook/Humboldt and District Museum and Gallery)

By Aaron Schulze

Humboldt Water Tower

Nearly demolished to tourist attraction: the Humboldt Water Tower

Jul 30, 2019 | 4:29 PM

Originally, there were only 11 water towers in Saskatchewan that were built to look like a lighthouse.

To the Humboldt and District Museum and Gallery’s knowledge, there are only four of them remaining, and they look after one of them.

“Ours is the only one that has been turned into a heritage attraction that the public is able to get into,” Museum Supervisor Jean Price said. “Others are still functioning as water towers or falling into disrepair as far as we know.”

The Humboldt Water Tower is going through its touring season during the summer months, although the possibility of it never seeing the 21^st century was real.

Price said the Humboldt Museum was handed the refurnished water tower from a group of volunteers who saved the building back in 1997.

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“The water tower had been down for about 20 years at that point and council had announced they were considering demolishing it,” she said. “The volunteers decided this is not what should happen at all; this is a significant piece of architecture in our community and needed to be preserved.”

From 1997 to 2015, the volunteers took over management of the Humboldt Water Tower from the city and spent nearly two decades restoring the building with a new paint job, shingles, and a staircase in the interior for the public to use the tower as a lookout.

A staircase was placed inside of the Humboldt Water Tower to allow residents and tourists to use the building as a lookout. (Facebook/Humboldt and District Museum and Gallery)

Once the Humboldt Water Tower turned 100 years old in 2015, the volunteers asked the city if they would manage the building again. The city’s cultural services department – which looks over the Humboldt Museum – took over the water tower’s management the following year and has been hosting regular tours of the building in the summer.

“We do get a lot of people who come to Humboldt and see the water tower, or families who bring their visitors over,” Price said. “We encourage people to at least see the staircase, if not climb the stairs and get the best view in Humboldt.”

Outside of hosting tours in the summer, Price said the museum’s main focus for the Humboldt Water Tower is to continue holding fundraisers, such as sponsorship of steps on the staircase, to ensure the building continues to stay in good shape.

“It’s quite a large building and has maintenance needs,” she said. “The volunteers did so much work on it that maintaining it is really important and that it doesn’t fall back into the condition it was in before.”

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow