Benjamin Campbell, his family, neighbors and friends formed the water company in 1892. It began with one small tank; the 1906 earthquake brought down its wooden tanks, and four 20,000-gallon tanks replaced them before the steel tower of 1928.
In 1908 a household of five or fewer paid a dollar a month. George E. Hyde bought the company in 1918, and it merged with the San Jose Water Company in the 1970s. The water company gave the tower site to the city in 1994, and it became Hyde Park.