Marker Inscription
Architecture
Historic Place
Smith--Young Tower
The landmarks the nation chose to remember.
About this site
Smith--Young Tower is a historic place in San Antonio, Bexar County, dedicated in 1991. It is one of 74 historic places documented in Bexar County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 542 historic sites cataloged across the county.
The site sits at 29.4229, -98.4912 near San Antonio. The nearest cataloged historic site is Bowen's Island (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include San Antonio Drug Company, Alamo National Bank (1929), and First National Bank of San Antonio.
This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #2091001682. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.
History
The Smith-Young Tower, now the Tower Life Building, is a 31-story neo-Gothic skyscraper at 310 South St. Mary's Street in San Antonio, completed in 1929 as the centerpiece of the unfinished Bowen Island Skyscrapers development by brothers J. H. and F. A. Smith with developer J. W. Young. Designed by the local firm Ayres & Ayres, its octagonal brick-and-terra-cotta exterior features Gothic grotesques and an iconic green Ludowici-tile roof, and it housed San Antonio's first Sears store. Renamed Transit Tower in 1942 and Tower Life in 1960, it was the tallest building in the city until 1968 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 13, 1991.
Sources: en.wikipedia.orgsah-archipedia.org
Get Texas Roam — all 28,000 sites in your pocket
See this site and every marker, cemetery, courthouse, museum and landmark across Texas on one live map — find what's near you, get directions, and check in as you roam.
Nearby in Bexar County
Historical Marker
Bowen's Island
San Antonio · 1985
Historic Place
San Antonio Drug Company
San Antonio · 1994
Historic Place
Alamo National Bank (1929)
San Antonio · 2006
Historic Place
First National Bank of San Antonio
San Antonio · 1972
Historical Marker
Old San Antonio National Bank Building
San Antonio · 1979
Historic Place
Aztec Theater
San Antonio · 1992
Historic Place
San Antonio Loan and Trust Building
San Antonio · 1976
Historical Marker
The Pajalache Acequia
San Antonio · 1936