Moonlight Towers - Austin, TX - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

The citizens of Austin have zealously protected these ancient lights from the 1890's street lighting system. Today Austin is the only city in the world to maintain this lighting system. Originally there were 31 installed, but only 15 are still standing. (Two less than when the marker text was written.) Each of the moonlight tower is considered a part of the National Register of Historic Place.

Wikipedia lists all the towers, their original location and whether they're still standing.

A custom Google map provides a geographic view of where towers are or were.

The narrative text from the Moonlight Towers at the Texas Historic Sites Atlas website reads:

The Austin "Moonlight Towers" were erected in 1894-1895 by the Fort Wayne Electric Company and served as the City's original means of illumination. Originally, 31 of the towers were put up at various locations throughout Austin. They were built of a triangular cast and wrought iron framework, 150 feet high, mounted on a 15 foot tall iron pedestal anchored in concrete, giving each "Moonlight Tower" a total height of 165 feet. They resemble spindly oil derricks and were so designed to prevent attempts to scale the towers. The structures are incapable of standing by themselves and are steadied by balanced tension steel cables. Within the center of each tower's framework is a small, hand-operated elevator which was used, originally, to lift a workman to the cluster of six carbon arc lamps at the top to change, light, and extinguish the two pieces of carbon which produced the illumination. A ladder on the outside of the structure was also provided for servicing. In the 1920's, these lamps were replaced with incandescent lighting and, in 1936, mercury vapor lamps were installed with an on/off switch at each base and continue, today, to be used. The original lights illuminated an area within a circle of 3,000 feet in diameter and the Fort Wayne Electric Company guaranteed that the light would be strong enough to enable anyone to read a normal watch without squinting and agreed to remove the towers at its own expense if this test failed. (Today the lamps are somewhat weaker, covering a circle of about four square blocks.) Two towers have been destroyed in traffic accidents, two have been blown down by cyclones, and six have been victims of rust and old age. The locations of the 21 remaining "Moonlight Towers" are as follows: 1. City Park 2. East Side Drive and Leland St. 3. Zilker Park 4. South 1st St. and West Monroe 5. West 4th St. and Nueces St. 6. West 6th St. and West Lynn 7. West 9th St. and Guadalupe 8. West 12th St. and Blanco St. 9. West 12th St. and Rio Grande 10. West 15th St. and San Antonio 11. West. 22nd St. and Nueces St. 12. West 41st St. and Speedway 13. West 23rd St. and Red River 14. East 19th St. and Chicon ST. 15. East 13th St. and Coleta 16. Leona St. and Pennsylvania Ave. 17. East 11th St. and Trinity 18. East 11th St. and Lydia St.. 19. East 6th St. and Medina St.. 20. East 2nd St. and Neches St.. 21. Canterbury St. and Lynn.

The Austin "Moonlight Towers" are believed to be the only remaining examples of the tower lighting system which was popular in U.S. cities during the late 19th century. At the time of their installation in Austin, only Detroit, Michigan, still maintained a similar lighting system. Efficiency and economy had pushed other cities to replace the tower lights with conventional street lights, but Austin's citizens have opposed moves to remove their 'Moon Light Towers" citing their romantic, sentimental, and advertising value. The City has respected the feelings of the people and has put forth great effort in caring for the 21 remaining towers (Deemed "Moonlight Towers" because of the blue, moonlight-like glow they cast, they were put up high with the theory that they would diffuse a light everywhere, like the moon or sun.), including the moving of a tower threatened by the widening of a street and the erection, in 1967, of a replica tower in Zilker Park (to replace a fallen one) at a cost of $10,000. Originally, 31 of the lighting structures were built by the Fort Wayne Electric Company and put into use for the first time on May 6, 1895. They were to provide illumination for the hilly City of Austin at night, aiding citizens in their nocturnal movements about the City and helping police to protect businesses after dark. The towers became an official state landmark in April 1970. Austin's city officers of the 1890's, led by Mayor A.P. Wooldridge, received the "Moonlight Towers" in exchange for a city-owned narrow-gauge railroad which had been used for transporting building materials to the old Austin Dam site on the Colorado River (an historic engineering failure, the dam broke in 1900). The Fort Wayne Electric Company agreed to light the City of Austin and to install dynamos at the Austin Dam which would power the lamps. The transaction for lighting and dynamos was conducted with $70,000 in cash and the remaining $43,500 as trade in value for the railroad, setting the original cost of each of the 31 "Moonlight Towers" at approximately $1,500. Since the day they were first lit the lights have been off for only a few short periods. Threatened with removal on two occasions, the towers have been zealously protected by Austin's citizens. The City has incorporated the old system with the newer, more conventional street lights and has continued to maintain the Tower Lighting System in response to the demands of the citizens.

The primary Moonlight Tower photos are from Guadalupe and 9th Avenue. Photos of the tower at Monroe & 1st Street and Zilker Park are also included. Photos from any tower are welcome to this waymark.

Street address: 9th & Guadaloupe (and Others) Austin, Texas USA County / Borough / Parish: Travis County Year listed: 1976 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1875-1899 Historic function: Government Current function: Government Privately owned?: no Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Secondary Website 2: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Please give the date and brief account of your visit. Include any additional observations or information that you may have, particularly about the current condition of the site. Additional photos are highly encouraged, but not mandatory.

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Date Logged Log User Rating   11/05/2014 Sissyta visited it 07/04/2014 QuesterMark visited it 04/15/2013 Benchmark Blasterz visited it 01/20/2013 DougK wrote comment for it

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