By Dan Tortorice
Friends of Lake View Hill Park
In just over 10 years from now, we will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the creation of Lake View Sanatorium. So in a lot of ways, it’s easy to look at the park grounds as kind of an archaeological site.
When we visit the remains of the hog barn or walk down the embossed steps cut into the side of the hill leading down to Northport Drive, we are walking through the relics left by a very advanced civilization caring for its most vulnerable citizens to its greatest ability.
Dane County was the last county in Wisconsin to build a dedicated hospital for victims of tuberculosis. It made up for this by building a state-of-the-art facility that saved the lives of hundreds of people. The hospital was built on top of Lake View Hill in 1930.
In 1938, a tower was constructed on the grounds to supply water and fire protection to the growing facility. It served in this capacity for the entire life of the sanatorium and was taken over by the City of Madison in 1978. It was listed by the National Registry of Historic Places, along with other parts of the hill, in 1993. When the old tower was taken down, the State Historical Society asked the city to preserve some of its parts.
Madison has built a new reservoir on the same site, but we now have a few parts of the old tower on display near its base. There is a piece of leg structure that holds the mast that rode atop the tower for over 70 years. It has a retro-fitted light at its end.
Al Larson from the Madison Water Utility gave a small dedication ceremony for the new display on Sept. 10. He talked about the role these reservoirs play in supporting the life of the city. They function to provide drinking water, fire protection and 12 hours of emergency water in the event of a complete loss of electrical power. The utility recently lost power for two minutes in the MGE fire. In an emergency, the towers provide water by the power of gravity.
The new tower contains two tanks. A 300,000-gallon tank provides water to the hill area. A lower 1-million-gallon tank serves much of the east side. The water comes from city Well No. 13, located on Wheeler Road. In addition to building the tower, the city laid new pipes down to Northport Drive, improved the drainage area around the tower with rain gardens, and added 24 parking spaces in the visitor section of the lot.
The preservation and display of these tower relics fits in beautifully with our park’s mission to celebrate the history of Lake View Sanatorium.