**Leaning Tower of Niles

Leaning Tower of Niles /LEE ning TOUW er uv NYE els/ n. The north suburban roadside oddity that brings a bit of Italy to Touhy. The 8-story tower at 6400 West Touhy in Niles was built in 1934 -- some 600 years after the Pisa tower -- by Chicago industrialist Robert A. Ilg to hide a water tower that serviced two swimming pools. Ilg was an admirer of Galileo, who legend says dropped things from the Italian tower to prove that objects of different weights fall at the same speed. When Ilg died in 1964, he left the tower to the nearby YMCA, on condition it remain standing until 2059. A little more than half the height of the Pisa tower, it is built on a concrete base 10 feet underground. So unlike the Pisa tower, which began tilting when the ground settled under its wooden pilings, it is stable.