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The Compton Hill Water Tower, located at Grand and Russell is a 179-foot tower built of buff colored stone and brick. Harvey Ellis was the designer. Completed in 1898, the tower cost $48,000 to complete. It is a Norman tower on a Romanesque base with carvings of mythical animals and leaf patterns on its walls. During the St. Louis World’s Fair as many as 5,000 people visited the tower and the surrounding formal park.

The Compton Hill Water Tower remained in service until 1929. Renovated in 1999, it has never been threatened with demolition as have the other Water Towers in St. Louis.

Old standpipe water towers were used over a century ago, before modern pumping methods. Steam-driven pumps were used to send water through the city. This method of pumping created large surges in pressure causing pipes to rattle and shake and low water pressure on the upper stories of homes. The large vertical pipes of the Water Towers allowed the water to rise and fall thus preventing surges and equalizing water pressure. Exterior towers were built to hide the standpipes for aesthetic reasons. Today the Standpipe Water Towers are obsolete and only seven remain in the United States. St. Louis has three of these: the Old White Tower, the Bissell Tower, and the Compton Hill Tower. All three have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since the early 1970s.