History past and present stands tall at the 1925 harbor control tower in the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.

A crow’s nest was added to the water tank in 1926, and for 88 years since then, harbor ships have been controlled from the 161-foot perch.

The harbor control facility is one of four old water tank towers at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam brimming with history — but not water anymore.

They’re all as dry as a bone, including Freedom Tower, which held 500,000 gallons; the harbor control tower, with a 380,000-gallon capacity; the Ford Island control tower, with 250,000 gallons; and the submarine dive tower, which held 280,000 gallons.

All but the dive tower, used for submarine escape training, were part of the old water supply.

The harbor control tower’s environs could be used as a ready-made pre-World War II movie set.

Flanking the checkerboard international-orange and white tower is the aptly named “Building 1,” built in 1913 as the administration building for the shipyard and naval station and still in use, said Jim Neuman, historian for Navy Region Hawaii.

Below the tower is the old shipyard cafeteria, no longer used, that also predates World War II, Neuman said.

At the time of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack, there were two other water tank towers similar to the harbor control tank and in the same vicinity. Those are long gone, as is another of the water tanks that was on Ford Island.

The Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor saved the control tower complex on Ford Island and so far has spent about $4.5 million to replace 52 tons of corroded steel and lots of glass, and to repaint the tower’s international-orange and white stripes, said museum Executive Director Ken DeHoff.

The nonprofit museum is fundraising to do more and has applied to the state for a $550,000 grant “to help restore the elevator so that we can start taking tourists to the top of the water tower,” DeHoff said.

At the time of the attack, the crow’s nest on top wasn’t built.

Freedom Tower on the Hickam side of the base, the most elegant of the old towers, was completed in a Moorish design in 1938.

A new concrete ramp control tower is rising at Hickam, meanwhile, as the base evolves to meet the latest military need: the pivot to the Pacific.

“Due to the nature of what we’re experiencing right now, it’s part of the growth project that’s going to be the expansion of the ramp spaces here on Hickam,” said Wayne Gantt, the Hickam ramp facility supervisor. “Also, it’s going to serve the larger part of the pivot to the Asia-Pacific region. So we’re expecting increased aircraft activity and increased mission growth here at Hickam.”

HARBOR CONTROL TOWER

The harbor control tower is the only one remaining of three similar towers that were jointly built by the Army and Navy in the 1920s and clustered near the shipyard.

The harbor control water tank was built in 1925. A small cab was added a year later, and an elevator was added after that. The Navy recently completed $11.2 million in repairs on the aging tank.

Delton Walling, who was atop the tower on Dec. 7, 1941, as a 19-year-old signalman, recalls it was a “drab old gray tower” back then.

HICKAM RAMP FACILITY

The concrete tower is being completed near the Air Mobility Command passenger terminal to control on the ground what is expected to be an increasing number of military aircraft coming through Hickam in the near future.

The $7.4 million facility, at 140 feet, will replace an 82-foot-tall existing ramp facility that was built in 1952, said Wayne Gantt, the Hickam ramp facility supervisor.

Honolulu Airport’s control tower guides planes in landings and takeoffs, while the ramp facility will guide them as they taxi, Gantt said.

FREEDOM TOWER

The concrete octagonal tower was a base design feature. Eight precast concrete eagles, each weighing 2,000 pounds, are located near the top.

Above the water tank is a 20-foot room used prior to and during World War II as a radio transmitter facility. A 166-step staircase provides the only access.

When bombs landed elsewhere on Dec. 7, 1941, rupturing water mains and causing a sudden water outflow, the internal steel water tank collapsed. It was renamed “Freedom Tower” in 1985 and is decorated with lights each Christmas.

SUBMARINE DIVE TOWER

Built in 1932 at the sub base, the riveted-steel escape training tower is the only one like it left in the Navy inventory, said Navy Region Hawaii historian Jim Neuman.

A signal tower used to be located atop the tower to move submarines in and out of Pearl Harbor, he said. Emptied of water in 1983, it was converted into a conference room shortly thereafter, Neuman said.

The tower is undergoing a $3.2 million project to replace the elevator and install a fire suppression system in the conference room and make other repairs.

FORD ISLAND TOWER

The movies “Tora! Tora! Tora! and “Pearl Harbor” featured the barber pole-striped control tower.
The tower is part of an operations building complex that had a garage, offices, barracks, an aerological tower, a water tank and ultimately, the upper control tower.

The shorter four-story aerological tower was used for wind direction and weather forecasting, but doubled as an interim control tower for aircraft using the Ford Island runway until the upper structure was completed in 1942.