A history of Selkirk's water tower

© 2020, 2021, Christian Cassidy

In 2020, I had a chance to do a lot of historic research for the City of Selkirk for their new online museum and archive collection. This series is a brief summary of some of the interesting buildings and places that I found there.  If you want to try someplace new or an urban walk, definitely check out Selkirk!

This research first appeared in my column in the April 17, 2018 edition of the Winnipeg Real Estate News and was updated in 2021.

Current Tower (C. Cassidy) and proposed design (City of Selkirk)

Selkirk Horton Watersphere Water Tank
370 Jemima Street, Selkirk MB
Horton Steel Works Ltd.
Opened: ca. 1961

Selkirk's water tower will be getting a new paint job in June. I thought this would be a great time to look back at the history of the two towers that have graced its skyline over the last 110 years. (You can also read my posts about the water towers of Brandon and Steinbach.)

September 8, 1906, Winnipeg Tribune

In September 1906, Selkirk ratepayers voted 225 to 9 in favour of allowing its municipal government to borrow up to $150,000 to install a waterworks and sewer system for the town.

The waterworks would distribute a pressurized, filtered water supply to a network of businesses, homes and fire hydrants. Prior to this, residents relied on their own wells or paid a "water wagon" to deliver it to them.

The most noticeable feature of the waterworks was the 275,000-litre capacity elevated tank that stood 32 metres above ground. Elevated tanks were seen as superior to ground level reservoirs as, in the case of a power outage or mechanical failure, gravity would keep the network fed, albeit at a much reduced pressure level.

Larger facilities in town such as the mental hospital, railway yard and some factories had their own water towers and would not immediately be hooked up to town water.

November 26, 1906, Winnipeg Free Press

The Town of Selkirk awarded tenders for the digging of trenches and laying of pipes in December 1906 and it appears to have taken a number of years to complete. (There are no digitized archives of the Selkirk newspaper from those years to track its progress, but tenders can be found in Winnipeg newspapers for more pipes and grates in May 1907 and for finishing touches like fire hydrants in June 1909.)

The Canadian Fairbanks Company and  Minneapolis Steel and Machine Co. supplied the pumping equipment and engines while William Newman Company of Winnipeg, an engineering and construction company, built the pump house and made the final hook-ups.

Water was drawn from an aquifer 70 metres below ground using gasoline powered engines capable of pumping 450,000 litres a day. It was filtered and pumped up the tower to the 275,000 litre capacity tank. (For more on how the system worked, here is a detailed description of the Moose Jaw system installed by the same companies in 1911.)

In July 1910 enough of the system was in service that the high pressure fire hydrants were tested out at a stables fire on Morris Avenue. The blaze was put out in a matter of minutes.

A report from Selkirk carried in the Winnipeg Tribune on November 2, 1910 noted that the full system went into operation in September and at the time of the story it was almost ready to be handed over to the Wm. Newman Co. for final inspection.

Selkirk water tower ca. 1913 (Archives of Manitoba)

The origins of the tank are a mystery. Available editions of Selkirk newspapers and engineering journals of the day do not mention who won that tender.

It is likely that it was a Horton Tank from Chicago Bridge and Iron Works, a leading manufacturer of large tanks at the time. (It would create a Canadian subsidiary called Horton Steel Works at Fort Erie, Ontario in 1913.) When the same companies teamed up to build Moose Jaw's waterworks in 1911 it was with a Horton tank.

A more local possibility is Dominion Bridge of Montreal which had a subsidiary in Winnipeg.

November 2, 1910, Winnipeg Tribune

On November 1, 1910, Selkirk town council approved the fees it would charge waterworks customers. It was more expensive than Winnipeg's water, but cheaper than Brandon's and Portage la Prairie's.

Homeowners could choose a flat rate service of $6 per year for a single water tap. For more complicated set-ups, an example given was an eight-room house with indoor toilet and kitchen using both sewer and water, the flat rate worked out to about $24 a year. Meters could be installed if it was felt that water use might be excessive, such as a property with a large vegetable plot, or below average, such as a seasonal home. 

In the end, the waterworks cost Selkirk about $75,000. The Winnipeg Tribune pointed out that thanks to its deep limestone aquifer, the water at Selkirk was some of the best municipal water you could find in the province.

Water tower in 1926 (Red River North Heritage)

In 1927 the tower required some maintenance which included a new paint job.

The tender for scraping and painting the tank was issued to Mr. Kenworthy and Mr. Allison late that year. They got the go ahead to do the work at the May 14, 1928 town council meeting and had completed the job by May 29.

Charles Taylor, the town's engineer, appeared before council at the end of May seeking additional money for the men who had to spend time removing a large amount of mud that had settled at the bottom of the tank and for enduring the "exceedingly bad" paint fumes while painting its interior. They received an extra $20 for their trouble. The total paid to them was $100.

On November 11, 1928, a fire began in the insulation inside the casing for the tower's stand pipe while it was undergoing repairs. The fire was impossible to reach so the fire brigade just kept the pipe's exterior as cool as possible. In the end, the main pipe and wooden casing that held it in place were destroyed. The town was without water until later that day when a makeshift pipe allowed water to start flowing again.

Joe Balcaen of Winnipeg was called in to make the repairs and install a new stand pipe. The work was completed by the end of November.

A major repair came in 1937 when the corroded base of the tank was replaced.

The tower was again painted in May 1949 by Dougal Pruden for $575. This included two coats of paint on the tower structure and one coat for the tank.

February 22, 1961, Selkirk Enterprise

In the 1950s it became obvious that the tower would have to be replaced due to both its age and the growing water demand related to the post-war housing and baby booms.

Dominion Bridge was called out in late 1958 to examine the structure. It determined that the tank was close to failure, noting that its workers ended up putting their hammer through the fragile outer skin in a couple of places. It was estimated that the tank had about eighteen months of functional life left.

Town council decided that it would again opt for an elevated tank, this one with a capacity of 950,000 litres. The new tower and its ancillary buildings would be located just 30 metres or so north of where the existing tower stood on McLean Avenue near Jemima Street

At the February 27, 1961 town council meeting it was announced that Horton Steel Works of Fort Erie, Ontario's bid of $109,980 won the tender. Harris Construction was awarded the main contract for the construction of the foundation and waterworks building.

Southern Power and Industry, February 1950

The new water tower would be a Horton Watersphere. It was a patented design introduced by the company in the late 1940s that had many advantages over more basic water tower designs. The support beam, access ladder and stand pipe were all enclosed to keep them protected from the elements. Its curved design meant that there were no exposed corners or welds for dirt or debris to cling to.

These operational factors and its "graceful sweeping lines" made the Watersphere popular for towns and industrial sites alike. Hundreds of Waterspheres in various sizes were built around North America from the 1950s through 1970s. Other Canadian examples include Yorkton, Sault Ste. Marie and Red Deer.

The companies wasted little time getting the project started. By the middle of March Harris was already at work and Horton's derricks had arrived on-site.

Harris' first job was to sink 13 reinforced concrete caissons that were 70 centimetres in diameter to a depth of nearly 8 metres. The work was completed by mid-April after which the concrete pad for the new tower was poured.

The water tower in 1964 (Archives of Manitoba)

It was then Horton's turn to erect the Watersphere. The structure stands 40 metres in height with the  sphere itself about 13 metres tall by 15 metres in diameter. 

There was an unexplained delay in the construction that required Horton to inform town council in July that it would not be able to complete the tower until August 18, 1961. It noted that the delay would not impact the opening date as the lost time could make up in the filling and testing stages.

Before filling, Horton painted the tower. City promotional material of the day referred to the colour as "lime green", while the Selkirk Enterprise called it "bilious green". It bore the name SELKIRK in bold, black letters.

Exactly when the tower officially opened is unclear as it either was not mentioned in the local paper or that edition is not available online.

Once the new tower was in service the old one was dsmantled. The first step was to remove the town's old emergency siren from atop it. The siren was used to signal members of the volunteer fire department from Selkirk and surrounding area.

On November 22, 1963, an Environment Canada weather station was set up on the site of the old tower. Prior to that date, Selkirk's weather information was taken from Winnipeg stations.

The site now appears to be residential property.

Sept.7, 1998, Selkirk Journal

Since its installation, the Watersphere has had a few paint jobs.

Horton Steel Works was back in August 1966 to drain the sphere and repaint the tower inside and out. It is unclear why this had to be done so soon. The Selkirk Enterprise noted that it was done with a "special paint" in the same shade of green.

It was painted silver in 1978.

The current paint job was done in 1998 by Western Industrial Services of Winnipeg.

In recent years the paint has flaked and peeled off in a number of places and the time came to paint it again.

In February 2020, the City of Selkirk launched a month-long design competition. It was won by Robyn Kacperski, a Selkirk-raised graphic designer

An RFP was issued for the work in May 2020 and it expected that the tank will be painted over the summer.

Related:
City of Selkirk's Drinking Water System
My photo album of the Selkirk Water Tower