Tall buildings in small towns

[STLmapboy]

I recently was perusing GSV in Big Spring, TX. It's is a fairly typical mid-sized West Texas town, with 28000 people. As I was going down 3rd St, I noticed a large building with a neon (now LED) sign at the top. It was the Hotel Settles, a historic 1930-built hotel that closed in the 80s and reopened in 2012. At 174 feet, the building was once the tallest between El Paso and Fort Worth (according to the hotel's website) and it definitely does stick out from the surrounding landscape.

This made me wonder; how many other small rural towns (NOT suburbs) have these types of isolated tall buildings? I remember driving past the 110-foot Anna Gray highrise in West Frankfort, IL, the town where my dad was born, but nothing else really comes to mind.

[thspfc]

The Harbor Tower in Escanaba, MI, pop. 12k, is 18 stories.

[EpicRoadways]

Most smallish population centers in Minnesota have one really tall midcentury building that sticks out like a sore thumb. In most cases it's affordable housing or college dorms.
A few examples:
Alexandria (15 floors)
Brainerd(12 floors)
Bemidji (13 floors)
Austin (twin 9 floor buildings)

[oscar]

Whittier, Alaska has Begich Towers, a 14-floor building, which houses most of the town's ~200 residents as well as offices and other businesses.

[renegade]

GROB Tower in Bluffton, OH:

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8893329,-83.8708523,3a,50.8y,97.44h,90.41t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s_aWD3FbzTmZmgmlMPJj8Jg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

We joke about this one every time we drive past this one.  Not sure what's inside.  At night it looks like conference rooms, but I don't know anything.   

[gonealookin]

While neither of these buildings is hugely tall, they do stand out in their small towns, and each was the tallest building in Nevada for a period early in the 20th century (when Las Vegas wasn't much more than an oasis and train stop, obviously):

The Mizpah Hotel in Tonopah.  Only 5 stories, but the tallest in Nevada from 1914-1927.  The big sign on top makes it look even bigger.
The Hotel Nevada in Ely. 6 stories and tallest in the state briefly, from 1929-1931.

A couple buildings in Reno were the tallest in Nevada from 1931-1956.  Las Vegas finally gets the award for keeps in 1956 with the Fremont Hotel downtown at that time and later a number of ever-larger buildings down on the Strip.

[STLmapboy]

GROB Tower in Bluffton, OH:

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8893329,-83.8708523,3a,50.8y,97.44h,90.41t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s_aWD3FbzTmZmgmlMPJj8Jg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

We joke about this one every time we drive past this one.  Not sure what's inside.  At night it looks like conference rooms, but I don't know anything.   

Probably the management offices for the factory right next door. Both at Bluffton Airport.

[kurumi]

In Montville, CT (pop. 19,571), the Mohegan Sun Sky Tower is 489 feet, and 36 stories: https://goo.gl/maps/oo38ejmzgJToVuih8.

It's the 4th tallest building in Connecticut. The top 3 are all in Hartford.

[ozarkman417]

Bartlesville, OK has a population of roughly 36k, yet has a 292 ft office building for ConocoPhillips.

[SectorZ]

Around me, there is a large 10-story office building in Danvers (pop. 27400) off MA 114 near US 1 and I-95. Not exceedingly big but sticks out from its surroundings. https://goo.gl/maps/ZDoFbfEZ6o3GTGQZ8

I'd add the Encore Casino in Everett, but on a line it is only a few miles from the skyscraper cluster in Boston. No Streetview thus far for this one as its fairly new.

[csw]

The West Virginian, Bluefield, WV

[thspfc]

The First Wausau Building in Wausau, WI is 241 feet tall, making it the tallest office building in WI outside of Milwaukee, and the tallest overall outside of Milwaukee and Madison. Wausau is only the sixth or seventh largest metro area in the state.

[formulanone]

The Residence Halls at Wallace State College loom large at 12 stories in Hanceville, Alabama (population ~3300).

[Bruce]

Bellevue, WA has a skyline that puts many major cities to shame (currently topping out at 450 ft, but with some 600 ft towers in the pipeline), but has under 150,000 people.



As for actual small towns, Walla Walla (pop. 31K) has this 160 ft hotel:

[mgk920]

I've always thought that due to the Mayo Clinic, the downtown skyline of Rochester, MN punches way beyond its weight class.

BTW, I consider Bellevue, WA to be a suburb.

Mike

[briantroutman]

I know I'm a broken record, but again, the topic calls into question what qualifies as a "small town" . If we determine size based on the population within an incorporated municipality, Conshohocken, Pennsylvania (pop. ~8,000) contains several 14-16-story buildings and boasts a rapidly growing "mini metropolis"  skyline. But that's less surprising when you consider that the small borough sits on the northwestern edge of Philadelphia and largely serves at a tax dodge haven for companies that want to avoid paying city taxes.

As to towns farther removed from larger cities: A few examples of high rises in cities around 30-40K population have been mentioned, and that isn't uncommon in cities of the same size in Pennsylvania. For instance, my hometown of Williamsport (pop. ~28,000), has a 100-year old hotel with 11 stories and is about 160 feet tall. Wilkes-Barre (pop. ~41,000) has roughly eight buildings of about 150 feet or greater in height. Then again, the fractured nature of municipal division in Pennsylvania generally makes individual municipalities less populous than they would otherwise seem to be.

[kphoger]

I know I'm a broken record, but again, the topic calls into question what qualifies as a "small town" . If we determine size based on the population within an incorporated municipality, Conshohocken, Pennsylvania (pop. ~8,000) contains several 14-16-story buildings and boasts a rapidly growing "mini metropolis"  skyline. But that's less surprising when you consider that the small borough sits on the northwestern edge of Philadelphia and largely serves at a tax dodge haven for companies that want to avoid paying city taxes.

The OP specifically excludes suburbs.

[jp the roadgeek]

  In Bristol, CT (a small city of about 60k) you have the Otis Elevator test tower located in an industrial park just across from ESPN World Headquarters which is 29 stories and 383 feet tall.  It is far from the downtown area, and is more than 3 1/2 times the height of the 2nd tallest building in the city. 

[Dirt Roads]

  In Bristol, CT (a small city of about 60k) you have the Otis Elevator test tower located in an industrial park just across from ESPN World Headquarters which is 29 stories and 383 feet tall.  It is far from the downtown area, and is more than 3 1/2 times the height of the 2nd tallest building in the city.

Similarly, the University Tower in the South Square section of western Durham, North Carolina is nowhere near the downtown section (nor the high-rise section of Research Triangle Park).  IIRC, it is 17 stories tall.  It is visible for several miles from US-15/501 coming up from the Chapel Hill area.  It is affectionately known as the Pickle.  I keep thinking that Durham wasn't very big when this was constructed in the mid-1980s, but indeed the factory town was over 150K even back then.

[-- US 175 --]

In Mineral Wells, TX, there is the Baker Hotel.  It is decades old, 14 stories tall, and was once an attraction for its mineral water spa.  The hotel has been closed for years.  Despite other attempts/failures in bringing the Baker back and renovating it, the building still stands.  It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.  Now a new group is trying to renovate the hotel to get it reopened.  It will need a lot of PR buzz around it if it does.  Mineral Wells only has 16,788 people (2010 census) and is a bit off to itself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_Hotel_(Mineral_Wells,_Texas)

[STLmapboy]

Continuing on the Texas theme, here's a 10-story seemingly abandoned building in Cisco and a 9-story bank in Breckenridge.

[Great Lakes Roads]

I can contest with this one.

Michigan City, IN with a 23-story Spa Tower at the Blue Chip Casino
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.7157705,-86.8918804,3a,75y,356.49h,91.5t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1soKOFjrIjVW9FCB903ups3A!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

and this building on the shores of Lake Michigan.
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.7282096,-86.8938509,3a,15y,352.55h,92.08t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sJ60jmD_ltO3bY0LeTPIrPg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

[Rothman]

Turning Stone casino is in Verona, NY, population 952.  It is 253 feet high and the tallest building between Albany and Syracuse (sorry, Utica and Schenectady).

[hbelkins]

Cartmell Hall, an 18-story dorm on the campus of Morehead State University, dominates the skyline. It was a male residence hall when I was in school there. I lived on the ninth floor my junior year, and the elevators went out far too often for my liking.

Mignon Tower, which was a female dorm when I was in school, doesn't have quite as many stories -- 14 -- but it sits upon a hill, so it's higher than Cartmell.

[GaryV]

Grand Traverse Resort in Acme, MI