Building P - L. Fish Furniture Building (1927) (Hammond, Indiana)

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photo by Timothy Arends

L. Fish furniture building (1927), now a center for Hispanic Americans, is a striking example of Art Deco architecture and terra-cotta ornamentation..

(The wooden water tanks you see on this and other old buildings serve a very useful purpose; they use technology from the 1890s to hold water for tap and sprinkler systems.

The tanks are unaffected by the loss of electrical power during a fire and provide the only ready water supply for some buildings. Since they are elevated, gravity pulls the water down and gives fire crews time to set up on the street.

Electrical pumps bring water up from the city's underground pipes to the tanks. Water from the tanks is used for bathrooms and kitchens throughout a building. The tank is automatically refilled when an electric sensor tells it that the supply is low.

With only rare exceptions, the tanks are made of wood because it is such an excellent temperature moderator. Water stays cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.)