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In the official records of the Los Angeles City Council or the Fire Commission there is nothing to indicate how Henry H. Gorter was lured away from his job at San Francisco. It may have been the $150. monthly salary, which was considerable more than he was making there, and moreover, he may have thought he had more opportunity to sell more water towers after completion of LAFD's tower. He may have been promised a position as Sup't of Engineers and Machinery after the completion of the tower. The Mayor, at the August 13, 1904 Council meeting asked that an ordinance be drafted creating the position of "Superintendent of of Engines and Machinery". On December 21, 1904, the Fire Commission made the same request of the Council and fixed the salary at $150. per month. The actual date that work started on the tower is not recorded, however on February 1, 1904, Gorter received his first $150.00 monthly payment as per the contract. On February 23, 1904, Chief Strohm reported payment of $8.92 for blueprints and $150.00 salary for the "mechanic" building the water tower. It may be safe to assume that construction began sometime in late January or in February, 1904. On march 28, 1904 Chief Strohm reported the payment of $60.00 for 400 lbs. of steel castings for the tower. Then on April 25, 1904, the Chief reported payment of $79.88 for cartage of patterns and castings from San Francisco. On February 25, 1905, Gorter received his next to last $150.00 payment as per the contract. There is no doubt that the Gorter Water Tower was constructed entirely in the shops behind Engine Co.4. The acceptance test was conducted on March 4, 1905, with three steamers drafting from
the Los Angeles Light Co. reservoir at 5th and Alameda Streets |
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Water Tower 1 was officially commissioned July 1, 1905 and moved into the former quarters of Truck "A" at Engine Co.4, 227 Aliso Street. Truck "A" had been de-commissioned earlier in 1905 and it is thought that it was placed in service with the members from the closed Truck. Water Tower 1 remained at Engine Co.4 until Truck "A" (now known as Truck 1 with a new horse-drawn Anderson City Service Truck) was reinstated. On August 16, 1910 Engine Co.24 was opened at 2nd and Hewitt Street and Water Tower 1 moved in. In mid 1914, shop numbers were beginning to show up and the Gorter Tower officially became Shop No.79. Shop No.79 was still located with Engine 24 when it was taken out of service on July 19, 1921 and sent to the Municipal Shops where the 1918 American La-France Type 31 2-wheeled tractor was removed from Shop No.22, Engine 3's Ex 1st Size Metropolitan steamer and attached to the tower motorizing the last horse-drawn apparatus in service on the LAFD. It was returned to service at Engine Co. 24 on October 13, 1921. Water Tower 1's last horse-drawn run was with "Archie" (No.152),
"Tom" (No.158) and "Pinky"
(No.192) pulling the Gorter out of Engine Co.No.24 on February 8, 1921; Contrary to one claim that the Gorter Water Tower and Water Tower-Truck Co.24 both operated at the Grey Building fire on November 6, 1939, it did not happen. Only Only Water Tower-Truck Co.24, Shop No.1085, the 1938 American La-France operated at this fire. Henry H. Gorter's most notable accomplishment was the three water towers he designed and built, however his Gorter Monitor and Wagon Battery nozzles and worm-type nozzle shut-offs were widely used in many Western fire departments. Gorter's shut-offs were designed to give hosemen the ability of turning off and on high pressure streams and to prevent hosemen from slamming nozzles shut which ran the risk of bursting hose, or stalling rotary type pumping engines, and on rare occasion, breaking the crank shaft on rotary type engines. S.F.&W. W. Hirsch, Seagrave agents in Los Angeles sold a worm-type shut-off called the "Metropolitan" made by L. F. Katona. It was adopted as standard on the LAFD. When they were no longer available, the LAFD purchased the patterns and made them in their own well equipped shops. They can still be found on LAFD apparatus. City
Council and Fire Commission Minutes Assignment
Record for Water Tower No. 1 Walt Pittman 4-23-89
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