Hightower Building - Oklahoma City, OK - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

At the northwest corner of Main Street and N. Hudson, there originally stood a three-story building, constructed in 1920 and known as the Shops Building. In 1929, this building was bought by F. P. Johnson, a successful businessman and President of the First National Bank & Trust of Oklahoma City. He contracted with architects, Hawk & Parr to design a seven-story skyscraper tower to sit on the three story building. The result was today's ten-story Hightower Building. The ground floor is storefronts, with display windows and cloth awnings. The main entrance is central on the east elevation. It opens onto a large marble-clad lobby. A central elevator shaft with four elevators still uses elevator operators, the last remaining manual elevators in Oklahoma City at the time of nomination to the Register.

The three-story base to this building is stone-clad, with a wide stone band separating the second and third floors. The windows on these floors are "Chicago-style" - three windows with the end ones double-hung sashes and the center window fixed. (During the 1980s when air-conditioning was added to the building, all wood-framed double-hung windows were changed to metal-frame fixed windows.)

The seven-story tower added in 1929 is a concrete and steel framed skyscraper clad in brick. A wide stone entablature separate the base from the tower, on which is engraved "MAIN" and "HUDSON" at the respective corners. The tower shaft is separated into three bays on the east and south elevations by brick and stone pilasters. A double-row of stone accentuates the vertical lines of the building. The windows on levels four through ten are set in pairs of single windows in the center bays, with single windows in the corner bays.

A stone beltcourse runs around the east and south elevations between the ninth and tenth floors. Decorative stone trim adorns the roof line.

In 1959, the Johnson family purchased a three-story building adjacent to the west which was built in 1925. The interior and exterior of this building was remodeled to match the Hightower design and the addition blends perfectly.

The building is occupied today by many company offices and the resurgence of the downtown area can only lead to continued success for this building.

Street address: 105 N. Hudson Oklahoma City, OK US 73102 County / Borough / Parish: Oklahoma County Year listed: 2002 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Architecture/Engineeering Periods of significance: 1925-1949 Historic function: Commerce/Trade Current function: Commerce/Trade Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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