lovers history and architecture share a rather curious passion: ‘the smallest skyscraper in the world‘, Newby-McMahon, located at Wichita Falls, Texas (United States). Although its title is not official, the anecdote behind its construction is a legend.
Undoubtedly this building in the small town of Texas It has won the prize for one of the most curious on several occasions.
It is a 12-meter, four-story building built in 1919, although when they promised to build it, it was expected to be much more than just those 12 meters high.
According to El Heraldo, the blog La piedra de Sísifo and the writer Pedro Torrijos, the history of this building originates from the economic growth that occurred in the decade of the 10 in the old state of Texas.
There, towns like Burkburnett and Wichita Falls experienced a bonanza like few others: births, nouveau riche, and businesses prospered hand in hand with the arrival of migrants and the deposits of Petroleum.
However, the turning point of the story came when in Wichita Falls, which had become the local logistics center, there was no more office space, and the main deals took place on street corners and in makeshift offices. with tents.
The solution to the problem of lack of space was not long in coming, in 1919 a man named JD McMahon announced that it would build a new building in which new offices could be housed.
Having promoted your idea, the man raised $200,000 at the timewhich today are more than three million dollars, under the promise that he would make a high-rise building for his investors.
The absurdity of the tale, however, lies in the details: McMahon drafted the legal construction documents stating that the height of the building would be 480” (inches), instead of 480′ (feet)a difference that was barely noticeable in the minutes that their benefactors signed with great enthusiasm.
Those 480 inches are equivalent to 12 meters, and not the 150 that the investors thought they were agreeing to in the document.
As icing on the cake, the man used his own group of workers for the construction, and built the four floors of the structure next to the old Newby Building, on land he was not allowed to build on.
Having finished the building, the story goes that McMahon left the town of Wichita Falls, taking the money he had been given, and with it the illusion of a skyscraper that never saw the light of day.
According to the well-known story, despite the fact that the investors tried to recover their money with a lawsuit, the technicality in the document where the building was planned played against them, and a local judge also ratified it.
Opened in 1919 and Called by Wichita Falls residents an embarrassment to the citythe so-called ‘smallest skyscraper in the world’ (World’s littlest skyscraper, in English) has managed to survive the passage of time and the multiple occupants it has had, as well as the flames that injured it in 1931.
newby–mcmahon building (world’s littlest skyscraper), wichita falls, texas
(michael beards, 1919) pic.twitter.com/aLUPzaHKrr— buildings being weird little guys (@weirdlilbldgs) April 6, 2022
It is known that his name was acquired after appearing in the American franchise ‘Ripley’s Believe It or Not’ in 1920, where he was nicknamed as he is known to this day.
At present, the Newby-McMahon remains at 701 La Salle in downtown Wichita Falls. The red brick and the cast stone that make it up are part of the Depot Square Historic Districtis Texas Historical Landmark and this is validated by the National Register of Historic Places.
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