Smith Tower


The Smith Tower is a glorious 1914 skyscraper, the tallest outside New York City at the time. It has an excellent observation deck, allowing perspectives like this. The Otis elevator to the top (in gleaming brass) has manual controls run by an operator.

Even better, there's a private penthouse in what was the caretaker's residence in the pyramid that caps the building. The young daughter of those living up there strayed down to the observation deck when we visited, and she's very chatty. "I'm not allowed to tell you where I live," as her eyes rose to the ceiling.

2 comments:

beth said...

look!!!! http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/garden/21who.html

Joe said...

A very timely article! My research prior to that showed that the tenant was very guarded about her penthouse, and I only dug up the two pictures linked. Fantastic additional detail in the NY Times piece.

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