The Huntington water tower, a well-known landmark, was used to store water pumped from Lake Erie below to irrigate John Huntington’s orchards and vineyards.
Though it looks like a lighthouse, this tower was actually a water-pumping structure that served to irrigate the grounds of John Huntington’s 100-acre estate. A brick pump house was located below the tower, which is speculated to have been run on steam power. John Huntington built the water tower to house a large storage tank so he could pump water from Lake Erie and store it in the tank to provide water for his property.
He wanted it to look pleasing so he designed it to look like a lighthouse. It was never used as a lighthouse, but Mr. Huntington did install stairs that led to the top so he could watch the lake for his freighters hauling stone in and out of the Cleveland harbor.