The Creepy Sulphur Springs Water Tower: Tampa's Lonely Giant

The Sulphur Springs Water Tower is a roughly 214-foot concrete tower built in 1927 on the north bank of the Hillsborough River in Tampa. It stands alone in a quiet city park, windows dark, no longer holding a drop of water. And if you've ever driven past it at night on I-275, you already know why people call it creepy.

It looks less like a utility and more like something out of a gothic novel: a pale castle keep rising over the treetops, built by a man who bet everything on it and lost. Here's the story behind Tampa's most haunting landmark.

Who built the Sulphur Springs Water Tower?

The tower was the dream of Josiah Richardson, a Kentucky-born promoter who came to Tampa in the late 1890s. In the early 1900s he bought about 100 acres around the mineral springs north of town, and he spent the next two decades turning the area into a resort.

By the mid-1920s, at the height of the Florida land boom, Sulphur Springs had a swimming spring, a hotel and apartments, and an arcade of shops that is often described as one of Florida's first shopping malls. What it needed was water pressure. Richardson's answer was a tower.

Civil engineer Grover Poole oversaw construction in 1927. The result was poured concrete reinforced with railroad rails, with walls about eight inches thick and a foundation sunk deep into rock. A 200,000-gallon tank sat in the top quarter, and the floors below were served by an electric passenger elevator. Poole gave it a medieval look, with narrow slit windows and a crown of battlements. He clearly built it to last. It has.

A fortune poured into concrete

Richardson didn't have the cash to build his tower outright. To pay for it, he mortgaged his holdings, reportedly for around $180,000, a staggering sum for the time.

Then came 1933. After heavy rains, the Tampa Electric Company dam upriver failed, and floodwater tore down the Hillsborough River. Accounts differ on the exact cause (some histories blame a storm, others suggest sabotage), but the result was the same. The arcade was badly damaged, the Great Depression was already squeezing every business in town, and tenants couldn't pay their rent.

Richardson lost the resort. He stayed in Tampa and lived until 1956, but the empire he built around the springs passed to other owners. The tower he'd mortgaged it all for kept standing over the ruins of his plans.

Why the water tower feels so creepy

Let's be honest: there's no well-documented ghost story attached to the Sulphur Springs Water Tower. We looked. No verified deaths, no famous apparition, no tragic legend backed by records.

And yet "Sulphur Springs water tower haunted" is one of the most common things people search about it. That says something. The tower feels haunted, and a few things explain why:

• It's abandoned in plain sight. The tower hasn't stored water in decades, and it's sealed to keep people out. A huge building nobody can enter invites the imagination.
• It outlived everything around it. The hotel, the arcade and the drive-in that once surrounded it are gone. The tower is the last survivor of a vanished resort.
• It's a monument to ruin. A man's whole fortune went into this concrete, and it's been standing empty longer than it was ever useful.
• It looks the part. Slit windows, battlements and long rust stains running down pale walls. Lit up at night, it looks like a lighthouse with no sea.

Some places are haunted by ghosts. Others are haunted by the past. This one is firmly in the second camp.

What happened to Sulphur Springs after the flood

After Richardson's fall, the tower kept working for a long time. It operated as a private water system piping artesian well water to nearby customers until 1971, when pressure from the City of Tampa ended the business.

In 1952 the Tower Drive-In opened next door. The story goes that the aircraft warning light on top of the tower annoyed moviegoers by washing out the screen. The arcade was torn down in 1976 for parking, and the drive-in eventually closed as well.

Through the 1980s and beyond, the tower was nearly lost more than once. A condo plan fell through. In 1989 it was pressure washed and repainted with donated graffiti-resistant paint. In 2002, when a drugstore development threatened the site, public outcry helped push the City of Tampa to buy the land. The city later added night lighting, and the grounds became a park.

Visiting the Sulphur Springs Water Tower today

The tower stands in River Tower Park in Tampa's Sulphur Springs neighborhood, near East Bird Street and North Florida Avenue, right alongside I-275 on the Hillsborough River. The park is public and you can walk the grounds, but the tower itself is sealed and not open to visitors.

The park is small and simple, so don't expect visitor facilities. Go near sunset, when the light hits the concrete, or after dark when it's lit. It's a short drive from Busch Gardens and an easy add-on to a day exploring north Tampa.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Sulphur Springs Water Tower haunted?

There's no documented ghost story or tragedy tied to the tower. Its reputation comes from its eerie look, its abandoned interior and the sad story of the man who went broke building it. Creepy? Absolutely. Haunted? That's up to you.

How tall is the Sulphur Springs Water Tower?

It's usually listed at about 214 feet, roughly 21 stories, which makes it easy to spot from the interstate.

Can you go inside the Sulphur Springs Water Tower?

No. The tower is sealed to prevent vandalism. You can visit the surrounding park and see it up close from the outside.

When was the Sulphur Springs Water Tower built?

It was completed in 1927, during the Florida land boom, to supply water pressure to Josiah Richardson's Sulphur Springs resort.

Tampa is full of places like this, where the history is strange enough on its own and the stories only get better after dark. If you want to hear more of them with a drink in your hand, join a Nightly Spirits ghost tour in Tampa.