Elgin Tower Building

Rising fifteen stories above downtown Elgin, Illinois, the Elgin Tower Building was Elgin's first skyscraper when it opened in nineteen twenty-nine, and it remains the most striking piece of architecture in this small manufacturing city. The design is Art Deco from top to bottom: terra cotta ornamentation, stepped crown, decorative spandrels, and a lobby clad in marble and bronze. It was built as the home of a bank and office tenants during the boom years just before the Depression hit.

The Elgin National Watch Company had made the city famous worldwide for precision timekeeping since eighteen sixty-four, and the Tower Building represented the same civic confidence that watchmaking money had built. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been renovated for mixed residential and commercial use, a vertical anchor for a downtown that is still finding its footing.