[2][non-primary source needed] Both the actual water tower and its pumping station are a designated National Historic Landmark for their architecture.

As with the Fairmount Water Works of Philadelphia (designed 1812, built 1819–22), the industrial nature of its pumping station was disguised in the form of a Roman temple complex.

Unknown to residents at the time, the lack of a safe water supply presented a significant health risk to the city.

This was because residents used the water of tainted private wells, but the linkage was not discovered until 1854 by the English physician John Snow, and not accepted as fact until decades later.

They chose an area just outside town, on a hill overlooking the Ohio River, which provided excellent elevation.

The portico is surmounted by a wooden balustrade with ten pedestals also constructed of wood, originally supporting painted cast-zinc statues from J. W. Fiske & Company, ornamental cast-iron manufacturers of New York.