Shot Towers were not uncommon in 19th century skylines. One of three in Baltimore,
the Phoenix Shot Tower was built on the corner of Fallsway and Fayette St. in 1828.
This is a 20th century photograph of the old Phoenix Shot Tower in Baltimore.
A remarkable photograph showing the giant tower. Over 234 feet in height,
the Shot Tower was the tallest structure in the United States until the Washington Monument
in Washington, DC was completed after the Civil War. The Phoenix Shot Tower was
a lead shot manufacturing facility that was in operation from 1828 to 1892. 

Phoenix Shot Tower, Baltimore. An 1884 drawing by an unknown artist.

The old Remington-UMC Shot Tower in Bridgeport, CT. The tower is no longer
used as a shot tower but instead is owned Bridgeport Habitat as a "lock-up"
or storage facility. It was built around 1909.

In 1821 George Youle built his first shot tower on the banks of the East River
just north of 53rd Street, but a few months later it collapsed. The replacement
depicted in this painting, built in 1823, was probably designed by John McComb, Jr. (1763 -1853).
It was so strong that demolition was difficult a hundred years later. The small inlet in
front of the tower provided a landing place for boats conveying prisoners and hospital
patients to the Charity Hospital, Alms-House, Work-House, and other
institutions on Blackwell's Island.