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Remarkable Ohio - The Stone Water Towers
Remarkable Ohio
 
 
 
Three stone water towers in Gallipolis were erected in 1892 by local craftsmen and inmates of the Ohio Penitentiary. The sandstone of the uncoursed masonry walls was quarried from the surrounding hills. A Union Hospital during the Civil War, this site on the Ohio River was perfect for a water system to be easily installed -- a new water system for the first hospital dedicated to the care of epileptics in the United States.
The first formal report issued for a publicly funded institution for epileptics in America was made by the Ohio State Board of Charities in 1868. Many years would pass before the political temperament of the state was right for the hospital to be approved and built
Twenty five years later, on Thanksgiving Day 1893, Ohio Governor William McKinley declared the Ohio Hospital for Epileptics open for the admission of patients.
The hospital was in service until 1950. The buildings closed in 1976. Today, the sandstone water towers are the only evidence that a hospital once stood here. The towers, which were restored in the 1980s, are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
May 3, 2021