The tower was built in 1928 for the Campbell Water Company, with a 75,000-gallon steel tank from the Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel Company, after earthquake and flood had wrecked earlier tanks. The city’s walking tour gives its height as 130 feet and calls it a symbol of historic downtown Campbell.
It no longer holds water. Since 2016 it has been lit by LED fixtures that can show 150 color combinations for holidays and awareness months. A former councilmember remembered watching it sway in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake; it stayed up.