Shortly after Gary was founded by U.S. Steel in 1906, the Gary Heat, Light, and Water Company built utilities for tens of thousands of new residents and businesses and hired Chicago civil engineer John W. Alvord. Drawing on his experience observing waterworks around the world and supplying water for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, Alvord designed a system to bring fresh water from Lake Michigan nearly three miles away. Its centerpiece was a Beaux-Arts pumphouse that no longer stands and the 133-foot water tower on Gary's westside that still stands. Completed in 1909, the tower had a tank 30 feet in diameter set on eight 90-foot steel columns. Instead of leaving it as an exposed steel skeleton, the company enclosed it in a concrete block shell, creating an octagonal landmark with a decorative cornice and parapet wall. The waterworks buildings became the centerpiece of nearby Jefferson Park, Gary's first public park. In 1911, the city lit a fire atop the tower in the hour before the July 4 fireworks, signaling the radically transformed landscape. Indiana American Water Company still uses the site and tower, now one of the earliest structures on the city's skyline.