Quickshot: The Leaning Tower of....Niles?

What’s up everyone?

A couple of weeks ago I happened to be flipping through an app on my phone and came across an article about roadside attractions in each state.  I knew of a couple that are here in Illinois, but I was quite surprised by the one they chose.  About 15 miles Northwest of Chicago lies the suburb of Niles.  Within the city you can find the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  Yes, thats right.  A scaled down version of the famous tower in Italy.  

The Niles Tower is about half the size of the original.  Standing 94 ft into the air with a 28 ft diameter base and a tilt of about 7.4 ft from plumb.  Of course they used modern materials to reenforce the structure.  Don’t want it to topple over.  Am I right?!  To compare, Pisa is about 186 feet tall with a 50 ft diameter base and has a lean of about 13 ft from plumb.

Back in the 1920s, a successful business man named Robert Ilg built a 22 acre recreation park for his employees of Ilg Hot Air Electric Ventilating Company of Chicago.  Wow! That was a mouthful.  The park had two giant pools within it.  Which posed a problem.  Two large pool obviously uses a lot of water, but where would they get the water to replenish the pools.  The choice was to build a water storage tower.  But if you’re going to build a tower, why not put a little twist on it.

In my research on the tower, there is not a clear reason why he chose to build the Pisa replica.  Most believe that it was to celebrate the Tower of Pisa’s 600th anniversary, but as I said, no clear reason.  Construction started in 1931 and was finished in 1934 and there it stands in all its glory.  Eventually a piece of the park was donated to the YMCA with the stipulation that they would maintain the upkeep.  This upkeep would soon swell past the agreed budget and the YMCA would not be able to properly take care of the tower.  

The city of Niles agreed to buy the tower from the YMCA and started to renovated the tower.  They add refection pool, lights, fountains, and beautified the landscaping.  In 1991 the Village of Niles established a sister pact with the city of Pisa.

To be honest it was kind of cool.  I wouldn’t suggest just going up there to see it, but if you are up in the area it is worth stopping by and taking some photos.  We didn’t get a chance to explore the Village of Niles as it was getting late in the day and we had to get back home.  So there could be more to explore there.  Maybe next time we are in the area we’ll check it out more in-depth.  All in all it was pretty interesting.

Thanks for stopping by.  Until next time.

Josh