Libby Water Tower
Towering over the former cannery district, the Libby Water Tower once served one of Sunnyvale's largest employers—Libby, McNeill & Libby—supporting fire prevention, sanitation, and food processing operations during the height of the city's fruit-processing industry.
History
- Constructed in the early 20th century, the Libby Water Tower was part of the vast infrastructure that supported Libby, McNeill & Libby's fruit cannery in Sunnyvale.
- The water tower provided essential pressure for fire suppression and cleaning operations—key requirements for maintaining health standards and worker safety during food processing.
- At its peak, the Libby cannery was one of Sunnyvale's largest employers, processing thousands of tons of locally grown fruit annually.
- The facility employed hundreds of seasonal and year-round workers, contributing significantly to the local economy during Sunnyvale's agricultural heyday.
Significance
- The water tower represents the industrial infrastructure that supported Sunnyvale's transformation from individual orchards to large-scale food processing.
- It stands as a monument to the city's role in feeding the growing population of California and the western United States.
- The tower symbolizes the engineering solutions required for safe, large-scale food production in the early 20th century.
- Today, while the canneries are gone, the water tower remains a striking reminder of Sunnyvale's agrarian-industrial past and the infrastructure that sustained it.
Quick Facts
Address:
991 West Evelyn Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94086
Established:
1920
Category:
industrial