Even though this amazing postcard (found on eBay recently) calls this a “proposed skyscraper,” I’m pretty sure that plans for “The Tallest Building in the South” never left the drawing board.
Just look at this thing! What were they thinking? Most architects try to make a building relate, in some way at least, to its environment. But boy, whoever planned this structure just decided that a soaring 20-story building would fit right in among its humble two-story neighbors.
The postcard doesn’t give the proposed location for this building, but it looks like Main Street or Front Street to me. And there’s no date, but the teeny-tiny horse-drawn cart and open roadster in the street (can you see them?) suggests it’s from the early 1900s.
And what a strange design! Barely three bays (or windows) square, and with all that ornamentation around the upper floors, the building looks extremely top heavy to me. A strong wind, like we had here a few weeks ago, would possibly blow the thing down, so it’s probably a good idea it was never built.
Though it would have looked very fine on the horizon, I guess.
