The Spite Towers of Irish Hills
Michigan
Along US Twelve in the Irish Hills of Lenawee County stand two wooden observation towers, sixty-four feet tall, separated by a sliver of spite. In nineteen twenty-four, the Michigan Observation Company wanted to build a fifty-foot viewing platform on the highest knoll in the area to attract tourists. One landowner, Thomas Brighton, agreed to sell his portion.
His neighbor, Edward Kelly, refused. So the company built on Brighton's half. When Kelly saw the crowds lining up at five cents a head, he built his own tower next door, ten feet taller.
The company then raised their tower by fourteen feet. Kelly matched them again. They competed for roughly thirty years before a single buyer, Frank Lamping, purchased both and connected them at the base with a gift shop.
The towers were added to the National Register of Historic Places in two thousand seven.
