Towns and Nature: Fort Wayne, IN: Lincoln Tower

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Fort Wayne, IN: Lincoln Tower

(Satellite) This was built by the Lincoln National Bank. The comments indicated it is now Star Bank.
(Update: Tom's History. Kenneth Childers posted 85 images, many of which include the tower (and courthouse dome). And he did another posting with 81 images, including some interior shots.)

Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Indiana posted
1930
Kathy Clemmer When i moved back to Fort Wayne as a retiree, I was thrilled to see the lobby murals and decor just as they have always been!
Steve Towsley Strange that this was constructed about the same time as the Empire State Building. Obviously similar architecture and I wonder what connections there were. I doubt both were designed with no knowledge of each other.
James Romary At one time the tallest building in Indiana, Ft. Wayne had a skyscraper taller than any building in Indy.
[I remember that for a long time buildiers in Indy could not exceed the height of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. My dad worked in Central Soya headquaters, which was on Berry near here. But I don't remember ever seeing the lobby of this building.]

Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Indiana posted
Photograph of the Lincoln Tower while under construction on 11/14/1930. Photo appeared in the Journal Gazette. Photo by Clippinger.

Update:

Photo from Kenneth Childers

Update:

Kenneth Childers posted
Fireworks over the Lincoln National Bank tower [pinterest]

Kenneth Childers posted
G Lincoln National Bank building with candles in the windows [photo by Childers 12-11-2015] - the comment is one I pasted in at the time by my cousin Danny about how our grandpa worked on the building.

Kenneth Childers posted
Nice view of the Lincoln National Bank building under construction [pinterest] c. 1929
Steve Tiny Michaels They broke ground as the Depression hit. Scrambled and got Lincoln Life to loan the money in order to survive the bank holiday. But the building got built.
Steve Tiny Michaels Tallest building in the state until 1968, when the Indiana National Bank in Indianapolis surpassed it.
Greg Biltz my dad was watching them build the Lincoln tower and one of the construction workers threw a dummy off the top floors as a joke it freaked a lot of the people out that were watching. I think somebody for real fell to their death.

Marilyn Krupa-Burns posted
Construction of the Lincoln Bank Tower, 1929. Photo courtesy of the ACPL.

Marilyn Krupa-Burns posted
Another photo of the Lincoln Bank Tower during construction. Steel framing completed. Courtesy of the ACPLl

Add captionanis Boulware-Aranda posted
Does anyone remember this..you could see it for miles.
Charles S Quilhot I sure do. We lived out on Reed Road and St. Joe Ctr. It was a majestic site unti the hideous Ft. Wayne National Bank building went up.Thomas Maloy Used to watch the rotating beacon from my bedroom window when I was a kid in the fifties. It was mesmerizing. We lived several miles from the Lincoln Tower.Arlene Curts thanks for the memory i remember on a cold snowy night you could hear the christmas music coming from the tower a mile away.Charles S Quilhot They stopped when the Fort Wayne National Bank building was built. Lincoln Tower’s light wasn’t needed and can you imagine sitting in the Summit Club and have the light pass by.Gary Phillip Sauers Charles S Quilhot I worked at the Summit Club in the 70's. I had real long hair. I wore a short hair wig. No one knew it for 2 years. We looked down on the Lincoln bank from up there. I think we were on the 24th and 25th floors and the bank was only 17 floors.Rick Papazian As I recall they shut off the red and raised the pitch of the white when the FWNB building was built because the lights shined into it. The white was shut off for the same reason when Summit Square was built.Jim Roehm Originally the German-American Bank. Lobby is classic art-deco. Too bad the observer deck is closed.Claudia Trentadue Ruhl In the late 50s early 60's as a young teenager, we'd ride the bus downtown in the summer & one of the things we do is go up to the open observation deck in the elevator -- you could do this anytime. It was the tallest building in the city then.Janet Leffler My mom told me it was a smaller version of the Empire State Building in NY City.Steve Tiny Michaels Mom lied to you. It actually evokes the runner up to the Tribune Tower competition. The Empire State building was built a year later.Steven A Cutter The "SUMMIT CLUB" had the light "BLOCKED" out in their direction.

Steve Winans posted

*** LINCOLN TOWER ***

MARCH 28, 2020 @ 12:05am.... It was a VERY cloudy & rainy night!!

You will notice that The Tower is lit up in RED, WHITE, & BLUE - except the right side light is GOLD -- Three of them were lit up WHITE & only this one was lit up GOLD -- for 6 days it was lit up like that!!

I've ALWAYS said that they use white lights sometimes (RARELY - It is GORGEOUS all lit up in only white lights) -- Gold lights only, is the "NORMAL" lighting -- but now we can ALL see, they do indeed use white lights, as well as gold lights!!

I hope you ALL enjoy this!!

Steve Winans posted

*** PEACE & TRANQUILITY ***

10:35pm, SATURDAY NIGHT, JUNE 6, 2020 -- The Courthouse Green -- NO ONE in SIGHT!!

Debbie Panyard Vogel-McLaughlin I love seeing photos with our country's flag flying in the wind. And then I realized that this picture of our beautiful downtown Fort Wayne captures 2 flags proudly waving.
[When I saved the post, there was a comment explaining that the protests that were scheduled for the weekend were cancelled when the organizers learned there were white-supremacist groups that were planning to travel to Fort Wayne to pose as protesters and cause trouble. But later, I could not find that comment.]