Ottawa residents who make the roughly hour-long drive down Highway 15 to Smiths Falls for a weekend on the Rideau Canal are about to lose one of the town's most recognizable landmarks. Smiths Falls, Ont., has set aside $400,000 to demolish a decommissioned water tower that has stood over its downtown for more than 100 years.
A Fixture of the Skyline
For generations, the steel tower has been a quiet constant above Smiths Falls' historic core, visible from the locks, the old CP rail yard, and the shops along Beckwith Street. Like many small-town water towers built in the early 20th century, it long ago stopped serving its original purpose but stuck around as a piece of the town's identity — the kind of structure locals use as a landmark when giving directions, even if they couldn't tell you the last time it actually held water.
Why It's Coming Down
Decommissioned infrastructure like this doesn't just get left in place indefinitely. Aging steel water towers require ongoing inspection and maintenance to stay structurally safe, and once a municipality stops actively using one, those costs start to outweigh the benefit of keeping it standing. Setting aside $400,000 signals the town has determined demolition is the more responsible long-term move rather than continuing to maintain a century-old structure that no longer serves a functional role.
An Ottawa Valley Connection
Smiths Falls sits about an hour southwest of Ottawa and is a familiar name to anyone in the capital region who's paddled or boated the Rideau Canal system, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that runs from Ottawa down to Kingston. The town is a popular stop for Ottawa-area cyclists, boaters, and day-trippers exploring the canal's locks, and its downtown — with its heritage storefronts and railway history — has become something of a low-key alternative to busier Ontario tourist towns. Losing the water tower won't change the canal itself, but for Ottawa residents who've come to recognize the skyline on their way into town, it marks the end of an era for one of the area's smaller, lesser-known landmarks.
What's Next
With funding now set aside, the town can move toward tendering the demolition work, though an exact timeline hasn't been set. For now, the tower remains standing — one last season for Ottawa Valley visitors to spot it before it comes down for good.
Source: CBC Ottawa
