Beloit Riverfest

The City of Beloit Waterworks and Pump Station was built in 1885 in Beloit, Wisconsin just below a hill on top of which sits the Beloit Water Tower. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.Beloit was first settled in 1836, and the city incorporated in 1856. In those early years, fire fighters had to draw water from private wells and cisterns, which were often inadequate, resulting in lost buildings. Also, diphtheria and typhoid fever were around, transmitted through contaminated water. Both problems could be addressed by a public waterworks system. Many agreed on that, but they debated whether it should a public project owned by the city, or a private for-profit venture.About 1885, two of the city's manufacturing companies expanded: the Eclipse Wind Engine Company (later Fairbanks-Morse), and the Beloit Iron Works. With those factories and the accompanying population growth, the citizens approved a privately-owned water utility, with the city paying a tax for use of fire hydrants and the public paying a charge per faucet. The Beloit Water Company was formed, and built the pump station which is the subject of this article.In 1885 the company built the pump station and the concrete reservoir. The reservoir is 40 feet by 115 feet by three feet high, built into the hill. The station is 1.5 stories with a clipped gable roof. Walls are red brick with shallow segmental arches above most windows. The main entrance is protected by a shed-roofed porch supported by columns. A balcony originally protruded above and beside the porch, but that has been removed. The roof was originally covered with slate. Originally the interior was divided into a pump room on the west, a boiler room in the middle, and a room for coal storage on the east.The Beloit Water Company also laid over seven miles of mains and installed 72 hydrants on both sides of the Rock River. The octagonal stone water tower up the hill was added to the system in 1889. It supported a 100,000 gallon cypress tank which held the water. With that, the pumping station could periodically feed water into the tank, and gravity supplied constant water pressure from the tank to homes and businesses. When there was a fire, the pumping station fed directly into the mains and hydrants to supply the fire-fighting equipment more than twice the pressure of the water tower.In 1927 the metal water tower was built to replace the old stone and wood one. Taller than the old one, it provided water at 80 pounds per square inch as compared to 50 before. At about the same time the new pump shed was added to the complex.The NRHP nomination considers the waterworks complex significant as "the only remaining unaltered public service building in Beloit form the 19th century." It is also a symbol of the early community coming together to provide fire protection and improve the health of all citizens.

Beloit is a city in Rock County, Wisconsin, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 36,657 people.

The Beloit water tower is a historic octagonal limestone water tower completed in 1889 in Beloit, Wisconsin.In Beloit's younger days, the city's fire protection consisted of two volunteer companies with hoses and mobile pumps that drew water from the Rock River and from private wells and cisterns. Several businesses burned just beyond reach of the hoses and finally in 1884 St. Thomas Catholic and Baptist churches went up in flames. Beyond fire protection, a source of clean drinking water would reduce the risk of diseases like diphtheria and typhoid fever. The rough-edged community debated for years whether a better water supply should be city-owned or a private enterprise.Finally in 1885 a consortium of local businessmen agreed to finance a private water works project. The financiers were: C.H. Morse, W.H. Wheeler, J.B. Peet, E.C. Allen, C.B. Salmon, and C.H. Parker. They hired Fairbanks, Morse Co. of Chicago to design the system, and J.B. Kinley designed the tower. It sits on one of the high points of town, with limestone walls 36 feet tall. The walls are octagonal, 36 feet in diameter at the base with walls eight feet thick. As the walls rise, they taper in four stages with the top stage 30 feet in diameter. Lancet-arched windows let light into the tower. Originally, a tank 20 feet deep sat atop the tower, built of 3-inch cypress and holding 100,000 gallons of water. A pumping station was built just southwest of the tower, powered by steam-operated Smith and Vale pumps. The resulting system could shoot a two-inch stream of water 130 feet high. Seven miles of water mains were laid through the city feeding 72 hydrants. For the fire protection, the city paid a tax to the consortium. The water-works also tried to entice homeowners to give up their private wells and switch to city water, offering free pipe to the curb for the first 100 patrons.In 1914 the cypress tank collapsed. The water-works replaced it with a metal tank of the same size, built by the Eclipse Wind Mill Company, right in Beloit. On top of the tank was a cupola, and a flag pole on top of that.By 1929 the water system served 25,000 customers, but the tower was outdated. A modern (for the time) steel tower was built nearby, with a 200,000 gallon tank. The metal tank was removed from the old tower, the stairs inside were removed, and demolition of the stone walls began, but the walls were well-built, and demolition was deemed too expensive. After demolition was given up, a Beloit Daily News article stated that the tower was "once regarded as the finest piece of masonry in the west". In 1983 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.Now, the stone water tower is a visible community landmark offering excellent photo opportunities for camera buffs. The area surrounding the tower has been developed into Water Tower Park with an ADA accessible walkway. The Water Works Pump House has been completely restored and currently houses the City of Beloit Parks and Leisure Services offices and Friends of Riverfront offices. Also, visitors are welcome to stop in during business hours. The Shingle Style pump house at the base of the bluff now acts as the Beloit Visitor Center.

Smith Observatory was an observatory at Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin. Completed in 1882, the observatory was funded by Janette S. Herrick and named in memory of her brother, John F. Smith. It served the campus from 1882 until the 1950s. In 1967, it was used as a coffee house before being torn down in 1969. It was replaced by the Thompson Observatory.

The Thompson Observatory was an astronomical observatory at Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin. The observatory was built in 1968 to replace the Smith Observatory, which had been built in the 1880s. The new observatory was named in honor of Alfred S. Thompson of the Beloit College Class of 1892. The instrument was a 22-inch reflecting telescope. It was removed when Chamberlin Hall was demolished to make way for the new Center for the Sciences in 2008-2009.

Club Pop House (called The Pop House) was a private teenage social and dance club located near downtown Beloit, Wisconsin at the intersection of Portland Avenue and 5th Street. The Pop House was a popular gathering spot for local high school and college students from 1946 until it closed in 1973. It was owned and operated by George Stankewitz, son of Lithuanian immigrants and a decorated World War II veteran.For dancing, the Pop House scheduled record hops and live music on weekends. It was host to many regional bands and a number of major musical acts including Conway Twitty, Bobby Vinton, Tommy Roe, Jimmy Gilmer and The Fireballs, Freddy Cannon, Johnny Tillotson, Paul and Paula, The Kingsmen, Bobby Goldsboro, and Del Shannon among others. A jukebox stocked with the latest hit records also was available.Social activities included top athletic teams in softball and basketball. An annual event, the Chili Festival in late fall featured election of a presiding "Chili Queen." Each spring brought the coronation of a "Softball Queen."The Pop House offered a lunch counter with hamburgers, French fries, pizza and soft drinks. It was noted for its specialty sandwiches with such names as the Snead, 12:01, and Smiley Special.Club Pop House was governed by an adult board of directors with established by-laws and rules of conduct. Prospective members had to be white, in the tenth grade or above and undergo a review process that included an interview with owner George Stankewitz before receiving a membership card and a key. The first African-American to receive a membership card and key was LaMont Weaver after winning the state championship with a half court shot with only seconds left for Beloit Memorial. In its heyday there were more than 600 active high school age members in a given year, a waiting list of about 100 more, and numerous "alumni." The "club" status of the Pop House was challenged in August 1965 when charges of racial bias resulted in a discrimination suit after five African-American citizens were denied service at the lunch counter. The case went to trial in November of that year and a jury cleared Mr. Stankewitz of bias charges, finding that the Pop House operated as a private club and could select its own membership.In 1972 a new eighteen-year-old drinking age law was enacted in Wisconsin. Owner Stankewitz began serving alcohol at the Pop House in November of that year, thus excluding the under-eighteen crowd. With a subsequent decline in business, Stankewitz announced his retirement and closed the Club Pop House in April 1973 after 27 years of continuous operation.

The Pearsons Hall of Science was built in 1892 on the campus of Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 because it was designed by the firm of Daniel Burnham and because it marks an expansion of the science curriculum at the college.

Beloit Memorial High School is a public, four-year comprehensive high school in Beloit, Wisconsin.

Beloit College is a private liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin. Founded in 1846, when Wisconsin was still a territory, it is the state's oldest continuously operated college. It is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and has an enrollment of roughly 1,400 undergraduate students.

The Wright Museum of Art is a small art museum maintained and operated by Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin. It houses a collection of approximately 6,000 objects, has five gallery spaces, and provides training for undergraduate students in museum studies. The building is also home to the department of studio art and art history. The Wright Museum of Art was founded with the donation of Helen Brace Emerson's personal collection in 1892. Emerson continued to be involved in art appreciation and access at Beloit College. In 1894 she brought a collection of ancient Greek sculpture that had been displayed at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. At the behest of Emerson other individuals gifted the College art and donations to further the art department.In the year 1930 Beloit College partnered with the city of Beloit to build the Wright Museum of Art. The initial funds of $139,000 constructed at building modeled after the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University. Over the years new additions were added to the museum: a second floor in 1949, an annex in 1960, and general renovations in 1996 and 2009. The museum was named for Theodore Lyman Wright, an 1880 graduate and later professor of Greek and the fine arts.The objects housed at the Wright Museum are "mostly European and American prints and paintings, College portraits, 19th century historic architecture photos, Soviet political propaganda posters, and Asian decorative arts, icons, and woodblock prints."

Logan Museum of Anthropology is a museum of Beloit College, located in Beloit, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1894 by Beloit trustee and patron of the arts Frank Granger Logan and contains about 300,000 archaeological and ethnological objects from around the world. Its collections and exhibitions relate to indigenous cultures of the Western Hemisphere, Oceania, and other parts of the world, including European and North African Paleolithic cultures. The Logan Museum was accredited by the American Alliance of Museums in 1972 and again in 2007.

First Congregational Church in Beloit, Wisconsin was built in 1859 from a design by Lucas Bradley, blending elements from Greek Revival and Romanesque Revival styles. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural significance on January 23, 1975. On August 24, 1998 the historic building was damaged by fire, after which it was razed and replaced with a new building, which is pictured.