Editor’s Note: Jack Becker is the editor of Caprock Chronicles and is a Librarian Emeritus fromTexas Tech University He might be gotten to at jack.becker@ttu.edu. Today’s quick article regarding the Great Plains Life Building is the preliminary of a two-part assortment by fixed issue Chuck Lanehart, Lubbock lawyer and prize-winning Western background writer.
Mother Nature frankly tried to degree the one raised location in a notoriously degree neighborhood, but almost 55 years in a while, Lubbock’s highest construction nonetheless stands. Some suppose the placement is turned, haunted or in any other case unfavorable, a logo of a lowering midtown location. Others take into consideration the tower an icon of city corridor therapeutic. What is fact story of the Great Plains Life/Metro Tower/ NTS Tower/Metro Tower Lofts Building?
Between 1940 and 1950, Lubbock was the 2nd fastest-growing metropolis within the United States (behind Albuquerque), so to swimsuit the anticipated enterprise want, a high-rise constructing remained so as.
In 1952, constructing and building began on a $2.5 million, looming 20-story workplace advanced on the northeast fringe of Broadway and Avenue L. The room was beforehand inhabited by the very long time home of Lubbock’s chief Wheelock members of the family.
The designer,Realty Equities Corp of New York, labored with saved in thoughts Abilene engineer David S. Castle, that developed the framework in mid-twentieth centuryInternational Style Hailed as the best construction in between Fort Worth and Denver, it could definitely climb 274 ft, overshadowing all varied different frameworks in Lubbock.
According to a 1953 information article, “The Lubbock skyscraper now under construction would be the best place in town to be when it is finished, in case a tornado should hit. Such buildings are harder to tear down. Tornadoes that have hit other cities . . . have proved multi-storied steel reinforced buildings can weather the storm.”
The quick article proceeded, “When the constructing is accomplished, together with a brand new $1,000,000 plus retailer for Dunlap’s simply throughout the road . . . and completion
of the brand new First Methodist Church, the downtown enterprise part of Lubbock could have gained a brand new ‘glamour’ look surpassing the wildest desires of some years previous.”
Opened for service in 1955, the main flooring was topped with big neon indications reviewing “Great Plains Life,” a regional insurance coverage supplier which inhabited quite a few floorings of the construction. Alas, the indications weren’t noticeable in Lamesa, 60 miles southern, as entrepreneurs had really actually hoped. Smaller be part of the preliminary flooring notified Lubbock’s age-old First National Bank likewise at present referred to as the placement house.
Among varied different organizations which rented room within the construction’s 110,000 sq. ft had been regulation follow, engineers, federal authorities workplaces, docs and dental professionals. The Top of the Plains eating institution shared the twentieth flooring with radio terminal KLLL, the place younger video jockey Waylon Jennings rotated paperwork and related his pal Buddy Holly.
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal launched commercials almost every day acquiring lessees, selling the construction as “fully air-conditioned,” with “superb janitor service and noise-proof ceilings” and “very reasonable” rental charges. But by 1970, First National Bank, vital regulation follow and likewise the Great Plains Life Insurance Company had really moved. Just 50 p.c of the construction was inhabited.
When the historic twister obtained to midtown Lubbock the night of May 11, 1970, it was a beast with winds surpassing 200 miles per hour, and the Great Plains Life Building stood in its dangerous course. The tornado was simply one of many largest and most dangerous taped. Twenty- 6 people had been eradicated, a whole lot had been damage, and residential or business property damages was approximated at $840 million ($ 6.7 billion in 2024 bucks).
The Great Plains Life Building– merely 6 blocks from the tornado’s main monitor– took an appealed the southwest edge because the twister continued in its southwest to north northeast course. Wind velocity close to the highest of the construction obtained to 220 miles per hour. Occupants that obtained away the framework all through the twister reported it was relocating “like a ship rolling in the sea.”
Aerial photographs taken shortly after the disaster reveal the construction standing splendidly amidst plain destruction within the bordering location. Everyone was fretted the 20-story pillar would definitely shortly drop. Windows had been broken, blocks had been shocked, and there have been data the framework was visibly
guiding. A civil safety automobile rolled with neighboring roads alerting, “Get back, the Great Plains Building is falling!”
Within days, designers analyzed all 20 floorings and left persuaded the tower was structurally regular and would definitely not fall. Attorney Clancey Brazill, that remained within the construction when the tornado struck, acknowledged, “I’ll give you an Oklahoma guarantee that if that building didn’t fall Monday night it never will.”
Nevertheless, residents was afraid the emotional influence of the construction being struck by the twister would definitely impede future procedures there. They had been proper, and for a few years, the uninhabited framework was house simply to pigeons and mischief-makers.
Part 2 of this assortment will definitely be launched in following Sunday’s Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
This quick article initially confirmed up on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Caprock Chronicles Great Plains Life Building and 1970 Lubbock tornado
