World's littlest skyscraper
Encyclopedia
The Newby-McMahon Building, commonly referred to as the world’s littlest skyscraper, is located at 701 LaSalle Street (on the corner of Seventh and LaSalle Streets) in downtown Wichita Falls
, Texas
. This late Neoclassical
style red brick and cast stone
structure is 40 ft (12.2 m) tall, and its exterior dimensions are 18 ft (5.5 m) deep and 10 ft (3 m) wide. Its interior dimensions are approximately 12 ft (3.7 m) by 9 ft (2.7 m), or approximately 108 sq ft (10 m²). Steep, narrow, internal stairway
s leading to the upper floors occupy roughly 25 percent of the interior area.
Reportedly the result of a fraudulent investment scheme
by a confidence man
, the Newby-McMahon Building was a source of great embarrassment to the city and its residents after its completion in 1919. During the 1920s, the Newby-McMahon Building was featured in Robert Ripley
's Ripley's Believe It or Not!
syndicated column as "the world's littlest skyscraper", a sobriquet
that has stuck with it ever since. The Newby-McMahon Building is now part of the Depot Square Historic District of Wichita Falls, which has been declared a Texas Historic Landmark
.
, a small town in Wichita County
, Texas in 1912. Burkburnett and its surrounding communities became boomtown
s, experiencing explosive growth of their populations
and economies
. By 1918, approximately 20,000 new settlers had taken up residence around the lucrative oil field
, and many Wichita County residents became wealthy virtually overnight. As people streamed into the local communities in search of high-paying jobs, the nearby city of Wichita Falls began to grow in importance. Though it initially lacked the necessary infrastructure
for this sudden increase in economic and industrial activity
, Wichita Falls was a natural choice to serve as the local logistical
hub, being the seat
of Wichita County. Because office space was lacking, major stock
transactions and mineral rights
deals were conducted on street corners and in tents that served as makeshift headquarters for the new oil companies
.
in downtown Wichita Falls, built in 1906 by Augustus Newby (1855–1909), a director of the Wichita Falls and Oklahoma City Railway Company. The oil-rig
construction firm of J.D. McMahon, a petroleum landman
and structural engineer
from Philadelphia, was one of seven tenants
whose offices were based in the original Newby Building.
According to local legend, when McMahon announced in 1919 that he would build a highrise annex to the Newby Building as a solution to the newly wealthy city's urgent need for office space, investors were eager to seize the opportunity to become even wealthier. McMahon collected $200,000 in investment capital
from this group of naïve
investors, promising to construct a highrise office building across the street from the St. James Hotel. The proposed skyscraper
depicted in the blueprint
s that he distributed was clearly labelled as being 480" tall and consisting of four floors. McMahon is said to have neglected to mention that the scale of his blueprints was in inches rather than feet.
in New York City was the tallest building in the world. They brought a lawsuit against McMahon, but to their dismay, the real estate and construction deal was declared legally binding
by a local judge. As McMahon had built exactly according to the blueprints they'd signed off on, there was to be no legal remedy
for the deceived investors. They did recover a small portion of their investment from the elevator company, which refused to honor the contract after they learned of the confidence trick
. There was no stairway installed in the building upon its initial completion, as none was included in the original blueprints. Rather, a ladder was employed to gain access to the upper three floors. By the time construction was complete, McMahon had left Wichita Falls and perhaps even Texas, taking with him the balance of the investors' money.
The oil industry would ultimately prove to be a resource curse
to Wichita Falls, and the Texas Oil Boom
ended only a few years later. The building was vacated, boarded up
, and virtually forgotten in 1929 as the Great Depression
struck North Texas and office space became relatively inexpensive to lease or purchase. A fire gutted the building in 1931, rendering it unusable for a number of years.
After the Great Depression, the building housed a succession of tenants, including barber shops and cafés. The building changed hands many times and was scheduled for demolition
on several occasions, but escaped this fate apparently because a sufficient number of local residents came to its defense. It was eventually deeded to the city of Wichita Falls. As the building continued to deteriorate, in 1986 the city gave the building to the Wichita County Heritage Society (WCHS), with the hope that it would eventually be restored, making it a viable part of the Depot Square Historic District.
On June 11, 2003, a storm swept through Wichita Falls, bringing gusts of wind as strong as 97 mph. A 15-foot section of brick wall from the McMahon Building complex was knocked down. The damage from this storm was repaired, but full restoration of the building and the adjacent Newby Building was delayed until late 2005. In June of that year, the City Council granted $25,000 in funds from the city's Tax Increment Financing Fund
, to be invested in the restoration of the McMahon Building. Restoration of the building is estimated to have cost more than $254,000, the remainder of which was paid by the owners (Bundy, Young, Sims & Potter, Inc. and Marvin Groves Electric).
days of North Texas
. The building is currently part of the Depot Square Historic District of Wichita Falls, which has been declared a Texas Historic Landmark
. The building has never met the criteria for the definition of a skyscraper, nor even that of a "highrise
" building. Aside from serving as a local tourist attraction, the building is home to an antiques dealership, The Antique Wood, which opened in 2006 on the ground floor. The third floor has been converted into an artist's studio.
The Newby-McMahon Building is among several historic buildings featured in the documentary film Wichita Falls: The Future of Our Past, a retrospective analysis of the city's architectural past produced in 2006 by Barry Levy, a public information officer with the city of Wichita Falls.
Wichita Falls, Texas
Wichita Falls is a city in and the county seat of Wichita County, Texas, United States, United States. Wichita Falls is the principal city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay and Wichita counties. According to the U.S. Census estimate of 2010,...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. This late Neoclassical
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
style red brick and cast stone
Cast stone
Cast stone is defined as “a refined architectural concrete building unit manufactured to simulate natural cut stone, used in unit masonry applications”. In the UK and Europe cast stone is defined as “any material manufactured with aggregate and cementitious binder, intended to resemble in...
structure is 40 ft (12.2 m) tall, and its exterior dimensions are 18 ft (5.5 m) deep and 10 ft (3 m) wide. Its interior dimensions are approximately 12 ft (3.7 m) by 9 ft (2.7 m), or approximately 108 sq ft (10 m²). Steep, narrow, internal stairway
Stairway
Stairway, staircase, stairwell, flight of stairs, or simply stairs are names for a construction designed to bridge a large vertical distance by dividing it into smaller vertical distances, called steps...
s leading to the upper floors occupy roughly 25 percent of the interior area.
Reportedly the result of a fraudulent investment scheme
Fraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
by a confidence man
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
, the Newby-McMahon Building was a source of great embarrassment to the city and its residents after its completion in 1919. During the 1920s, the Newby-McMahon Building was featured in Robert Ripley
Robert Ripley
Robert LeRoy Ripley was an American cartoonist, entrepreneur and amateur anthropologist, who created the world famous Ripley's Believe It or Not! newspaper panel series, radio show, and television show which feature odd 'facts' from around the world.Subjects covered in Ripley's cartoons and text...
's Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Ripley's Believe It or Not! is a franchise, founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims...
syndicated column as "the world's littlest skyscraper", a sobriquet
Sobriquet
A sobriquet is a nickname, sometimes assumed, but often given by another. It is usually a familiar name, distinct from a pseudonym assumed as a disguise, but a nickname which is familiar enough such that it can be used in place of a real name without the need of explanation...
that has stuck with it ever since. The Newby-McMahon Building is now part of the Depot Square Historic District of Wichita Falls, which has been declared a Texas Historic Landmark
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark is a designation awarded by the Texas Historical Commission for historically and architecturally significant properties in the state of Texas....
.
Background
A large petroleum reservoir was discovered just west of the city of BurkburnettBurkburnett, Texas
Burkburnett is a city in Wichita County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Wichita Falls, Texas Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 10,927 at the 2000 census. The community's newspaper is the Burkburnett Informer/Star...
, a small town in Wichita County
Wichita County, Texas
As of the census of 2000, there were 131,664 people, 48,441 households, and 32,891 families residing in the county. The population density was 210 people per square mile . There were 53,304 housing units at an average density of 85 per square mile...
, Texas in 1912. Burkburnett and its surrounding communities became boomtown
Boomtown
A boomtown is a community that experiences sudden and rapid population and economic growth. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, although the term can also be applied to communities growing very rapidly for different reasons,...
s, experiencing explosive growth of their populations
Population growth
Population growth is the change in a population over time, and can be quantified as the change in the number of individuals of any species in a population using "per unit time" for measurement....
and economies
Economic growth
In economics, economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society. Economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity, which lowers the inputs for a given amount of output. Lowered costs increase demand...
. By 1918, approximately 20,000 new settlers had taken up residence around the lucrative oil field
Oil field
An oil field is a region with an abundance of oil wells extracting petroleum from below ground. Because the oil reservoirs typically extend over a large area, possibly several hundred kilometres across, full exploitation entails multiple wells scattered across the area...
, and many Wichita County residents became wealthy virtually overnight. As people streamed into the local communities in search of high-paying jobs, the nearby city of Wichita Falls began to grow in importance. Though it initially lacked the necessary infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
for this sudden increase in economic and industrial activity
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
, Wichita Falls was a natural choice to serve as the local logistical
Logistics
Logistics is the management of the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of destination in order to meet the requirements of customers or corporations. Logistics involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging, and...
hub, being the seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....
of Wichita County. Because office space was lacking, major stock
Stock
The capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors...
transactions and mineral rights
Mineral rights
- Mineral estate :Ownership of mineral rights is an estate in real property. Technically it is known as a mineral estate and often referred to as mineral rights...
deals were conducted on street corners and in tents that served as makeshift headquarters for the new oil companies
Petroleum industry
The petroleum industry includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transporting , and marketing petroleum products. The largest volume products of the industry are fuel oil and gasoline...
.
Building proposal and blueprints
The Newby-McMahon Building is a one-story brick building located near the railroad depotTrain station
A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station,"Station" is commonly understood to mean "train station" unless otherwise qualified. This is evident from dictionary entries e.g...
in downtown Wichita Falls, built in 1906 by Augustus Newby (1855–1909), a director of the Wichita Falls and Oklahoma City Railway Company. The oil-rig
Drilling rig
A drilling rig is a machine which creates holes or shafts in the ground. Drilling rigs can be massive structures housing equipment used to drill water wells, oil wells, or natural gas extraction wells, or they can be small enough to be moved manually by one person...
construction firm of J.D. McMahon, a petroleum landman
Landman (oil worker)
In the United States and Canada, a Landman or "Petroleum Landman" is an individual who performs various services for oil and gas exploration companies...
and structural engineer
Structural engineer
Structural engineers analyze, design, plan, and research structural components and structural systems to achieve design goals and ensure the safety and comfort of users or occupants...
from Philadelphia, was one of seven tenants
Leasehold estate
A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord....
whose offices were based in the original Newby Building.
According to local legend, when McMahon announced in 1919 that he would build a highrise annex to the Newby Building as a solution to the newly wealthy city's urgent need for office space, investors were eager to seize the opportunity to become even wealthier. McMahon collected $200,000 in investment capital
Financial capital
Financial capital can refer to money used by entrepreneurs and businesses to buy what they need to make their products or provide their services or to that sector of the economy based on its operation, i.e. retail, corporate, investment banking, etc....
from this group of naïve
Naïve
Naivety , is the state of being naive—having or showing a lack of experience, understanding or sophistication. One who is naive may be called a naif.- Etymology :...
investors, promising to construct a highrise office building across the street from the St. James Hotel. The proposed skyscraper
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
depicted in the blueprint
Blueprint
A blueprint is a type of paper-based reproduction usually of a technical drawing, documenting an architecture or an engineering design. More generally, the term "blueprint" has come to be used to refer to any detailed plan....
s that he distributed was clearly labelled as being 480" tall and consisting of four floors. McMahon is said to have neglected to mention that the scale of his blueprints was in inches rather than feet.
Construction of edifice and ensuing legal battle
McMahon used his own construction crews to build the McMahon Building on the small, unused piece of property next to the Newby Building, without obtaining prior consent from the owner of the property, who lived in Oklahoma. As the building began to take shape, the investors realized they had been swindled into purchasing a four-story edifice that was only 40 ft (480 in) tall, rather than the 480 ft (146.3 m) structure they were expecting. At that time, the 792 ft (241.4 m) Woolworth BuildingWoolworth Building
The Woolworth Building is one of the oldest skyscrapers in New York City. More than a century after the start of its construction, it remains, at 57 stories, one of the fifty tallest buildings in the United States as well as one of the twenty tallest buildings in New York City...
in New York City was the tallest building in the world. They brought a lawsuit against McMahon, but to their dismay, the real estate and construction deal was declared legally binding
Contract
A contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...
by a local judge. As McMahon had built exactly according to the blueprints they'd signed off on, there was to be no legal remedy
Legal remedy
A legal remedy is the means with which a court of law, usually in the exercise of civil law jurisdiction, enforces a right, imposes a penalty, or makes some other court order to impose its will....
for the deceived investors. They did recover a small portion of their investment from the elevator company, which refused to honor the contract after they learned of the confidence trick
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
. There was no stairway installed in the building upon its initial completion, as none was included in the original blueprints. Rather, a ladder was employed to gain access to the upper three floors. By the time construction was complete, McMahon had left Wichita Falls and perhaps even Texas, taking with him the balance of the investors' money.
Early occupancy and subsequent abandonment
Upon its completion and opening in 1919, the Newby-McMahon Building was an immediate source of great embarrassment to the city and its residents. The ground floor had six desks representing the six different companies that occupied the building as its original tenants. Throughout most of the 1920s, the building housed only two firms. During the 1920s, the Newby-McMahon Building was featured in Robert Ripley's Ripley's Believe It or Not! syndicated column as "the world's littlest skyscraper," which is a name that has stuck with it ever since.The oil industry would ultimately prove to be a resource curse
Resource curse
The resource curse refers to the paradox that countries and regions with an abundance of natural resources, specifically point-source non-renewable resources like minerals and fuels, tend to have less economic growth and worse development outcomes than countries with fewer natural resources...
to Wichita Falls, and the Texas Oil Boom
Texas Oil Boom
The Texas Oil Boom, sometimes called the Gusher Age, was a period of dramatic change and economic growth in U.S. state of Texas during the early 20th century that began with the discovery of a large petroleum reserve near Beaumont, Texas...
ended only a few years later. The building was vacated, boarded up
Boarding up
Boarding up is the process of installing boards on the windows and doors of a property to protect it from storm damage or to prevent unauthorized access by squatters, looters or vandals....
, and virtually forgotten in 1929 as the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
struck North Texas and office space became relatively inexpensive to lease or purchase. A fire gutted the building in 1931, rendering it unusable for a number of years.
After the Great Depression, the building housed a succession of tenants, including barber shops and cafés. The building changed hands many times and was scheduled for demolition
Demolition
Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
on several occasions, but escaped this fate apparently because a sufficient number of local residents came to its defense. It was eventually deeded to the city of Wichita Falls. As the building continued to deteriorate, in 1986 the city gave the building to the Wichita County Heritage Society (WCHS), with the hope that it would eventually be restored, making it a viable part of the Depot Square Historic District.
Purchase and renovation
By 1999, the Newby-McMahon Building had proved to be an excessive burden on the limited capital reserves of the WCHS. The following year, the city council hired the local architectural firm of Bundy, Young, Sims & Potter to stabilize the crumbling structure, amid steadily growing talk of demolishing the building. Dick Bundy and his partners became fascinated with the history and legacy of the building; they arranged a partnership with Marvin Groves Electric, another local business, to purchase the building. In December of 2000, the city council voted to allow the WCHS to sell the building to Marvin Groves for $3,748.On June 11, 2003, a storm swept through Wichita Falls, bringing gusts of wind as strong as 97 mph. A 15-foot section of brick wall from the McMahon Building complex was knocked down. The damage from this storm was repaired, but full restoration of the building and the adjacent Newby Building was delayed until late 2005. In June of that year, the City Council granted $25,000 in funds from the city's Tax Increment Financing Fund
Tax increment financing
Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, is a public financing method which has been used as a subsidy for redevelopment and community improvement projects in many countries including the United States for more than 50 years...
, to be invested in the restoration of the McMahon Building. Restoration of the building is estimated to have cost more than $254,000, the remainder of which was paid by the owners (Bundy, Young, Sims & Potter, Inc. and Marvin Groves Electric).
Current status
With the passage of time, the Newby-McMahon Building has become a monument to a long-gone era. It has survived tornadoes, a fire, and decades of neglect to stand as a monument to the greed, graft, and gullibility of the oil boomOil boom
An oil boom is a boom in the oil producing sector of an economy. Generally, this short period initially brings economical benefits, in term of increased GDP growth, but might later lead to a resource curse.-Consequences:...
days of North Texas
North Texas
North Texas is a distinct cultural and geographic area forming the central-northeastern section of the U.S. state of Texas. North Texas is generally considered to include the area south of Oklahoma, east of Abilene, and north of Waco...
. The building is currently part of the Depot Square Historic District of Wichita Falls, which has been declared a Texas Historic Landmark
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark is a designation awarded by the Texas Historical Commission for historically and architecturally significant properties in the state of Texas....
. The building has never met the criteria for the definition of a skyscraper, nor even that of a "highrise
Tower block
A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, office tower, apartment block, or block of flats, is a tall building or structure used as a residential and/or office building...
" building. Aside from serving as a local tourist attraction, the building is home to an antiques dealership, The Antique Wood, which opened in 2006 on the ground floor. The third floor has been converted into an artist's studio.
The Newby-McMahon Building is among several historic buildings featured in the documentary film Wichita Falls: The Future of Our Past, a retrospective analysis of the city's architectural past produced in 2006 by Barry Levy, a public information officer with the city of Wichita Falls.
External links
- Emporis.com – The World's Building Website: Littlest Skyscraper in the World
- Streetview On Google Maps