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Photograph of Leaning Tower of Niles
Photograph by Miroslaw Mucha, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Leaning Tower of Niles, The

Built in 1934. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019.

From the record

“The Leaning Tower of Niles is a half-size replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa located in Niles, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Farr and completed in 1934, it was commissioned by industrialist Robert Ilg as part of a recreation park for employees of the Ilg Hot Air Electric Ventilating Company of Chicago.”

Wikipedia article Leaning Tower of Niles, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 621 National Register listings published here for Cook County · listed in 2019 · category: Structure · built in 1934.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. 6280 W. Touhy Ave., Niles, 60714
  • When was it listed? April 2019
  • Category. structure
  • Township. Niles township
  • When was it built? 1934
  • National Register reference number. 100003645 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Leaning Tower of Niles, The: 2 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Morton Grove City Eng. - Own CrewsStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Niles City Dept of Public WorksStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Cook County

Storms near this property

24 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Niles, the town this property stands in, in 24 storm reports between 2000 and 2023: 13 hail, 10 thunderstorm wind, 1 heavy rain. The reports record 1 death and 6 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
October 2001Thunderstorm WindNiles1 killed, 6 hurt, $5,000no account filed
June 2011Thunderstorm WindNiles$50,000Trees, tree limbs and power lines were blown down. Over 100 trees were blown down or needed to be completely removed. Numerous grocery stores and restaurants had to rent refrigerated trucks or ship perishable items to warehouses due to extended power outages. Three cars were damaged by falling tree limbs including one on Neva Avenue, one on Touhy Avenue and a one on Oakton Street.
August 2008Thunderstorm WindNiles$5,000A large tree limb fell onto a parked car. Power lines were also blown down.
April 2023HailNiles-Golf ball size hail was reported on the far northwest side of Chicago.
July 2022Thunderstorm WindNiles-Large tree limbs were blown down.
July 2022Thunderstorm WindNiles-A photo shared on social media showed a large tree that was uprooted.
July 2021Thunderstorm WindNiles-A large tree was blown down in the 7400 block of Harlem Avenue, blocking the entire road. The tree fell onto the front of a car driving southbound on Harlem Avenue. The driver was not injured.
August 2019Thunderstorm WindNiles-Tree damage was reported in Niles.
July 2019Heavy RainNiles-Rainfall of 1.20 inches was measured in 30 minutes.
July 2017HailNiles-Penny to half dollar size hail was reported.
August 2013Thunderstorm WindNiles-Tree limbs up to 8 inches in diameter were blown down across Edison Park. Multiple large tree limbs were split off from trees with some blocking roads and others falling onto power lines.
May 2012HailNiles-Multiple reports of half dollar size hail were received between Niles and Morton Grove.
June 2009Thunderstorm WindNiles-A pair of power lines were blown down onto a garage on North Olcott Avenue, setting a building on fire.
May 2006HailNiles-Quarter size hail was reported at Interstate 294 and Milwaukee Road.
September 2006Thunderstorm WindNiles-Tree limbs were blown down.
July 2003HailNiles-Reported at Golf Road and Greenwood Avenue.
August 2003HailNiles-Reported at Dempster and Waukegan Roads.
April 2023HailNiles-no account filed
May 2012HailNiles-no account filed
April 2010HailNiles-no account filed
April 2010HailNiles-no account filed
April 2010HailNiles-no account filed
August 2003HailNiles-no account filed
May 2000HailNiles-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Cook County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Norwood Park Historical District1.6 miles2002
Chicago and North Western Railroad Depot1.6 miles2001
Edison Park1.8 miles2007
Herbert A. Dilg House1.8 miles2009
Harrer Building1.9 miles1983
Noble-Seymour-Crippen House2.0 miles2000

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 100003645 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Cook CountyAll 621 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
  • Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.