Thomas Hill Standpipe - Bangor, Maine, USA
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UMainah
N 44° 48.442 W 068° 46.968
19T E 517175 N 4961574
Thomas Hill Standpipe is a riveted wrought iron water tank with a wood frame jacket located in Bangor, Maine. It is officially recognized as a Maine Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the Maine Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Waymark Code: WMF6PH
Location: Maine, United States
Date Posted: 09/01/2012
Views: 11
Thomas Hill Standpipe is a riveted wrought iron water tank with a wood frame jacket located in Bangor, Maine. It was officially recognized as a Maine Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the Maine Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2008.
From the Maine Section of ASCE's website (
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The Maine Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers presented the Bangor Water District with a plaque recognizing the Thomas Hill Standpipe as a significant state historic civil engineering landmark at Seadogs Restaurant in Bangor on Thursday November 20. History & Heritage Chair Will Haskell notes “It is exciting to celebrate the historical significance of this structure, which has been a vital component in providing clean, safe and reliable potable water and fire protection for over 110 years.” Built in 1897, the standpipe is a riveted steel tank 75 feet in diameter and 50 feet tall and can store 1.75 million gallons of potable water. Thomas Hill Standpipe joins sixteen other Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks in Maine.
While the standpipe is similar to many water tanks around the state and the country, Thomas Hill Standpipe is uniquely enclosed by a larger wood structure that is 85 feet in diameter and 110 feet tall. The wood enclosure is unique and serves multiple purposes. It has protected the steel standpipe from the natural elements and it offers a breathtaking, incomparable, 360-degree observatory of the City of Bangor from the promenade deck and the roof.
The Thomas Hill Standpipe was designed by Ashley B. Tower of Tower and Wallace of Holyoke, MA and built by Major James M. Davis on land owned by the Thomas Brothers. The standpipe is constructed on a stone foundation and consists of large steel plates riveted together. There are 22 steel plates in each circumference of the tank and there are 10 courses of plates to achieve the height of the tank. The tank is topped by a massive three-ton steel drum. This drum is 15 feet tall and 4 feet in diameter. There is a casting fitted to the bottom of the drum that was cast locally at the Bangor Foundry & Machine Company. This drum supports 24 iron trusses that support the promenade deck and the roof structure. The trusses were furnished by the New Jersey Steel & Iron Company, which also supplied the steel plates for the standpipe.
The wooden enclosure sits upon a stone block foundation that is 9 feet high and about 3.5 feet thick. The sill is made up of 2 by 12 pine planks bolted together to a thickness of 14 inches and bent to the circle. There are 24, 12 by 12 pine columns, all 48 feet long supporting the structure. A stairway winds around the inside of the structure and leads to the promenade deck. There is another stairway that leads from the promenade deck to the roof of the structure. In all, 42,000 board feet of pine was used in its construction and about 220,000 cedar shingles protect it from the elements.
At 111 years of age, the standpipe continues to be a significant part of the Bangor Water District’s distribution system, providing storage and pressure regulation to the downtown area. For many years the tower was open to the public and featured seats on the promenade deck for viewing the surrounding area.
From the Bangor Water District website (
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This standpipe is a National Historic Landmark as designated by the Register of Historic Places and the Maine Historic Preservation Commission. It is also designated an American Water Landmark by the American Water Works Association. BWD assumed ownership of the standpipe in 1957 when a quasi-municipal water district (separate from the City of Bangor) was formed.
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