Shamrock Water Tower

Shamrock, Texas, United States

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Shamrock's water tower rises about 176 feet beside the town's Water Tower Plaza on North Main Street. The city accepted Chicago Bridge and Iron Company's bid in September 1915, and local reports date construction to 1915 and 1916. A Texas Historical Commission marker says it is the tallest tank of its class the company built and one of the tallest water tanks in Texas.

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Shamrock Water Tower

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Approximate location · 35.214° N, 100.250° W

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The story

Shamrock's water tower, which NewsChannel 10 reported in 2025 was finished in 1916, is a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.

Before the tower, the Texas Historical Commission marker says, citizens got their water from one of two town wells or hauled it to town in barrels on wagons. Shamrock voted to incorporate in March 1911, a November 1912 election authorized the sale of bonds for a $15,000 drinking water system, and in September 1915 city leaders accepted the bid of the Chicago Bridge and Iron Company of Chicago, Illinois. The marker, placed in 2008, describes an all-steel tank holding 75,000 gallons and rising 176 feet above ground level. It calls the tower the tallest tank of its class ever built by the company, according to company records. Early travelers watered horses and wagon teams at concrete troughs under it, the marker says.

NewsChannel 10 reported that construction began in 1915 and finished in 1916. A Shamrock council member told the station the tower is a multi-column, all-steel riveted type, that 906 of the 1,260 water towers built in Texas were of its type and class, and that Shamrock's is the tallest the company constructed. A 2015 ABC7 report estimated the height at between 172 and 176 feet.

Water Tower Plaza, at 210 N. Main Street, was dedicated in 2009, the council member said, and lets visitors learn the tower's history and about the men who built it. The ABC7 report said the city kept the tank about half full and that citizens maintained most of the upkeep. It also said the tower is praised as the tallest water tower in Texas, while the marker says only that it is the tallest tank of its class built by the company.

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