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Photograph of Riverside Historic District
Photograph by Unknown, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Riverside Water Tower

A National Historic Landmark. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969.

From the record

“The Riverside Historic District, also known as Riverside Landscape Architecture District, encompasses what is arguably one of the first planned suburbs in the United States. The district encompasses the majority of the village of Riverside, Illinois, a suburb just west of Chicago.”

Wikipedia article Riverside Historic District (Riverside, Illinois), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 621 National Register listings published here for Cook County · listed in 1969 · category: Structure · a National Historic Landmark.

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

The listing

  • National Historic Landmark. The highest federal designation, held by about 2,600 places in the country against roughly 100,000 Register listings.
  • Still standing. The Park Service records this property as extant.
  • Address. Bounded by 26th St., Harlem and Ogden Aves., the Des Plaines River, and Forbes Rd., Riverside, 60546
  • When was it listed? September 1969
  • Category. structure
  • Township. Riverside township
  • National Register reference number. 69000055 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

2 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Riverside Water Tower in 2005, burning about 1 acre in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
7 June 2005Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
20 May 2005Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois State Fire Marshal's Officenot named

Every fire recorded in Cook County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of Riverside Water Tower: 8 past producers, 2 plants. 2 still produce. 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
Bellwood QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Dolese and Shepard Crushed StoneStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Federal Quarry & MillStone, Crushed/BrokenPlant
Mc Cook Yard No. 387 & MillStone, Crushed/BrokenPlant
River Forest City Eng - Own CrewsStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Riverside Lime and Stone Co QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Summit Quarry Consumers CompanyStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Superior Stone Co QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
West Chester City Eng. - Own CrewsStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Wester Springs City Eng.-Own CrewsStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Cook County

Storms near this property

13 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Riverside, the town this property stands in, in 13 storm reports between 2006 and 2022: 11 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning, 1 hail. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. 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
August 2006Thunderstorm WindRiverside$20,000A 500 foot to 1,000 foot wide path of tree damage was reported through much of Riverside. Power lines were also blown down.
August 2006Thunderstorm WindNorth Riverside$20,000Tree damage was reported throughout North Riverside. A tree was uprooted on Fifth Avenue and half of another tree came down on 12th Avenue. Power lines were also blown down.
June 2011LightningNorth Riverside$15,000Lightning struck the chimney of a house on Herrick Road. The chimney was destroyed. The lightning apparently started a fire on the opposite side of the house, causing minimal additional damage.
June 2008Thunderstorm WindRiverside$10,000Several trees and numerous tree limbs were blown down in Riverside. Part of a tree fell onto a house near Herrick Road.
August 2011Thunderstorm WindNorth Riverside$1,000Winds measured to 65 mph caused a 6-inch diameter tree limb to fall on a car.
June 2022Thunderstorm WindNorth Riverside-Large trees, tree limbs and power lines were blown down in North Riverside. The worst damage on the east side appeared to be concentrated between 23rd Street and Traube Street, particularly in the 2300 and 2400 blocks of Burr Oak Avenue and 2500 block of Hainsworth Avenue, where fallen trees blocked roadways.
June 2022Thunderstorm WindNorth Riverside-A large tree from a residential backyard fell onto the wall of the Ames School gymnasium but did little to no damage. The tree fell onto part of the wall with no windows. The tree also fell onto a chain-link fence, which was damaged and fell onto a power line.
June 2022Thunderstorm WindRiverside-Hundreds of trees were damaged in Riverside, including trees blown down, snapped and uprooted. Many roads were blocked by fallen trees. Eight houses were damaged by falling trees, including homes in the 200 and 300 blocks of East Quincy Street. A large tree was uprooted and fell onto a house on Lawton Road, severely damaging the home. Utility poles and powerlines were also blown down. Numerous roads were blocked by fallen trees and tree limbs. Numerous trees were blown down onto the railroad tracks near the Riverside station.
June 2022Thunderstorm WindNorth Riverside-Extensive tree damage occurred on the west side of North Riverside, from west of 8th Avenue, southeast through the forest preserves near the Caledonia Senior Living Center. No damaged occurred to the center, but trees were damaged on its grounds and along its edges including damaged fences and access to the facility was blocked. Numerous trees were fully or partially blown down in the area near Komarek School.
April 2022Thunderstorm WindNorth Riverside-A photo showed a large tree that was uprooted.
July 2021Thunderstorm WindRiverside-Several tree limbs were blown down.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindNorth Riverside-Wind gusts were estimated to 60 mph.
June 2011HailNorth Riverside-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
Arcade Buildingunder 500 feet2016
F.F. Tomek House0.3 miles1999
Hofmann Tower0.5 miles1978
Avery Coonley House0.7 miles1970
Benda House0.8 miles2023
Haymarket Martyrs' Monument1.0 miles1997

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 69000055 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.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • 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.