RALEIGH -- Long before anyone thought to turn the Triangle's tobacco factories and textile mills into offices, condos and restaurants, William Deitrick moved his architecture firm into an old granite-and-brick water tower in downtown Raleigh.
That was in 1938. The city planned to tear down the 85-foot octagonal tower, so Deitrick bought it and went on to design local buildings there, including the final plans for Dorton Arena.
Now, the Raleigh water tower is for sale again. The state chapter of the American Institute of Architects, to which Deitrick donated the building in 1963, has put it on the market as the group plans to build a new, larger headquarters a few blocks away.
"It's a fun building," said David Crawford, the group's executive vice president. "We just need more room."
The AIA is asking $685,000 for what is a one-of-a-kind building. The Raleigh Water Works, a private company, built the tower and an attached two-story brick building in 1887 and used it to store and distribute water throughout the city. The tower was once topped by a 30-foot iron tank that held as much as 100,000 gallons of water and reportedly made the tower the city's tallest structure, topping even the state Capitol a half-block away.
The tower has held architects longer than it did water. The tank was dismantled in 1924, and Deitrick removed the pine columns that once held it up, and built four octagonal rooms, one atop another, in the bottom third of the tower. From the top room, long used for storage, you can look up about 50 feet to the bottom of the wooden platform where the tank once sat.
Deitrick also renovated a newer two-story office building on the back of the lot and wrapped them both in a brick wall, creating a courtyard. Trees on the adjoining properties, owned by AT&T and First Presbyterian Church, shade the courtyard.
The property has generated a lot of interest since it went on the market in July, said Ann-Cabell Baum Andersen of the Glenwood Agency. Her firm has shown the building about three dozen times and held an open house this month that drew 100 people.
"I've shown this property more than any property I've ever handled," Andersen said.
The building has attracted attorneys and architects looking for offices, as well as people interested in turning it into a single-family home or a bed and breakfast. Andersen said a "pretty high-end restaurateur" has also looked at the tower.
The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and restrictions that Deitrick put on the deed largely prevent major exterior renovations. But interior renovations are wide open, including the possibility of adding more floors inside the tower, Crawford said.
The AIA, which hopes to remain in the tower as a tenant until its new building is ready, wants to find a particular buyer, Crawford said.
"We're looking for a lover of historic properties," he said, "somebody who will take great care of the building."
Adapting the building for public use, like a restaurant or bar, might be challenging, Crawford said. The tower is about 25 feet in diameter, and making the upper floors handicap-accessible would require a space-consuming elevator. An office or home would be easier, he said.
The AIA uses the tower's ground floor as a reception area and the second floor as a conference room - both wrapped in three-foot-thick walls of granite quarried near Rolesville.
"That granite keeps a nice constant temperature in there," Crawford said.
Andersen specializes in downtown real estate, particularly condominiums, but she says the tower may be the most remarkable property she has handled. And she expects whoever buys it will hang on to it.
"This is not something that will probably come on the market again," she said.
