The world's smallest skyscraper

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I'm all about the bizarre and the forgotten/off-the-beaten bath, and this lilliputian tower certainly smallestskyscraper.jpgseems to fit that description, although perhaps "1920s urban Americana" might also apply. It seems that during the Texas oil boom of the Roaring Twenties, a traveling con man fooled investors into constructing a 4-story "skyscraper":

No one noticed that all the plans, promotional literature, etc. had tiny decimal points in all the crucial figures. i.e. 4.0 stories was taken as 40 stories. The project was oversubscribed by quite a bit and the project built to completion, upon which the promoter skipped town.

The investors started trying to sue or arrest him when the swindle became evident during construction, but were unable to since the contract was followed to the letter. They did recover a few dollars from the elevator company (who refused to honor their contract after they discovered the decimal points). Unable to get the crook, the investors funded a team which followed him around the country breaking up any deals he tried to put together.

You can read more here.



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This page contains a single entry by Richard published on October 7, 2010 6:13 PM.

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