# BIG BUILDING, small town **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 22, 2007, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-building-small-town/409047 "2007-06-22T19:59:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-building-small-town/409047/1 "2007-06-22T19:59:21Z")
During the late 90’s, I had a job that required me to go to Walla Walla, WA for a few days every week. For those of you who know nothing about Walla Walla beyond it’s inherently funny name, it’s a small town in Southeastern Washington of about 30,000 people within its city limits that’s based mainly around agriculture, the state prison, and a couple small colleges. Yet, it also has a building, [the 13-story Marcus Whitman Hotel](http://www.marcuswhitmanhotel.com/), that seems overly tall for a city of Walla Walla’s size. I don’t think any of the other buildings in downtown Walla Walla are more than four stories. This led me to the idea for this thread: has anybody come across any tall buildings in small towns? The only other one I can think of is [the Baker Tower](http://www.bakercity.com/economic_dev/central_com/baker_tower.htm) in Baker City, Oregon–a ten-story building in a town with under 10,000 people. BTW, this doesn’t count tall hotel buildings in resort or tourist towns with small populations. I’m talking about office and/or hotel buildings in otherwise typical small towns that loom so large on the horizon that they look like the only building around for miles. ---
**Author:** ![Rooh\_Afza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/74df32/32.png) [@Rooh\_Afza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rooh_Afza)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-building-small-town/409047/2 "2007-06-22T20:18:44Z")
There is a small town in the Midwest - population 250 - sitting in the middle of freakin’ nowhere with a double-steepled Catholic church that has pew space for 1800 people. How they managed to build the thing during the height of the Depression is beyond me but the place is fantastic - marble and granite and gilt. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-building-small-town/409047/3 "2007-06-23T04:41:45Z")
Including the two I initially mentioned, that’s only three. I guess there aren’t too many examples. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-building-small-town/409047/4 "2007-06-23T04:51:47Z")
[QUOTE=NDP] During the late 90’s, I had a job that required me to go to Walla Walla, WA for a few days every week. [/QUOTE] [Homer] mmmm Onions[/homer] ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-building-small-town/409047/5 "2007-06-23T05:03:05Z")
The [entire skyline](http://www.flickr.com/photos/57678152@N00/354485822/) of [Midland, Texas](http://www.travelinformation.com/detail.php?item_no=62&id=73). The city has 100,378 residents, and the Midland-Odessa metro is home to 251,842. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-building-small-town/409047/6 "2007-06-23T05:32:28Z")
Most of the 200 or so residents of Whittier, Alaska live in a single 14-story building. In their case, the big builiding IS the small town. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-building-small-town/409047/7 "2007-06-23T06:24:54Z")
[QUOTE=NDP] During the late 90’s, I had a job that required me to go to Walla Walla, WA for a few days every week. [/QUOTE] [George Carlin] Wonderful WINO radio, in western Walla Walla[/GC} Sorry I got nothing ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-building-small-town/409047/8 "2007-06-23T07:02:52Z")
[QUOTE=Joey P] [Homer] mmmm Onions[/homer] [/QUOTE] Too bad I hate onions. ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-building-small-town/409047/9 "2007-06-23T07:43:07Z")
I grew up in Gainesville, Florida, a college town of approximately 30k people when the students were gone and 60k when they were in town. Pretty much the tallest building was 4 stories, maybe the hospital had 6. And then there was the Heritage building. Easily about 14 stories high. Never really found out why, but it wasn’t used most of the time I lived there. Towards the end of my time there, they made a few offices in the lower floors and made the top floor a private club type restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-building-small-town/409047/10 "2007-06-23T11:42:49Z")
Platteville, WI population 10,000 or so has a 8 story building (Pioneer Tower) on the campus of UW-Platteville. There aren’t many non University buildings beyond 3 stories that I can recall. Brian ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-building-small-town/409047/11 "2007-06-23T12:02:46Z")
Choteau, MT has approx 1500 people in it (or at least it did 10 years ago, when I lived there). Most of the buildings on “main street” are 2 story buildings. These are the usual buildings. However, since Choteau is also the seat for Teton County, the “City Hall” is a giant building of granite. It was used in the movie “War Party”, wherein a facade was burned down to duplicate a fire. ---
**Author:** ![initech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/439d5e/32.png) [@initech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/initech)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-building-small-town/409047/12 "2007-06-23T17:33:51Z")
Pittsburg, Kansas (pop. 19,000) has the 12-story [Besse Hotel](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ks/crawford/postcards/hotbes.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ks/crawford/postcards/ppcs-crawford.html&h=558&w=349&sz=54&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=NFb995frfaMg6M:&tbnh=133&tbnw=83&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhotel%2Bbesse%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official) smack in the middle of town. ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-building-small-town/409047/13 "2007-06-23T17:58:49Z")
[QUOTE=Auntbeast] I grew up in Gainesville, Florida, a college town of approximately 30k people when the students were gone and 60k when they were in town. Pretty much the tallest building was 4 stories, maybe the hospital had 6. And then there was the Heritage building. Easily about 14 stories high. Never really found out why, but it wasn’t used most of the time I lived there. Towards the end of my time there, they made a few offices in the lower floors and made the top floor a private club type restaurant. [/QUOTE] Hey, I’m from Hogtown too. Where’d you’d gradute from and when? I graduated from GHS in 1985. We always called that building the [Seagle Building](http://www.seaglebuilding.com/) and it does [tower oddly](http://heritage.acld.lib.fl.us/1151-1200/1172.html) over downtown Gainesville. I wish I could remeber what town it was in but on the way from Austin to Witchita Falls, TX there’s a small town with a huge gothic looking structure. It easily takes up an entire downtown block (of a typical Texas smal town downtown) and kinda loomes menacingly over the town. It was kinda creepy… ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-building-small-town/409047/14 "2007-06-23T19:16:32Z")
[QUOTE=initech] Pittsburg, Kansas (pop. 19,000) has the 12-story [Besse Hotel](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ks/crawford/postcards/hotbes.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ks/crawford/postcards/ppcs-crawford.html&h=558&w=349&sz=54&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=NFb995frfaMg6M:&tbnh=133&tbnw=83&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhotel%2Bbesse%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official) smack in the middle of town. [/QUOTE] Likewise, Danville, Ill. has the 12-story now-empty [Breese Tower](http://www.dot.state.il.us/us136/photos/HistoricalPhotos/1940_5503.jpg) in the middle of downtown. It’s been empty for probably 10 years, and they can’t get moving on development. Carbondale, Ill. pop. ~20k, has three seventeen story residence hall towers on the campus of Southern Illinois University. ---
**Author:** ![DJ\_Motorbike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90ced4/32.png) [@DJ\_Motorbike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DJ_Motorbike)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2007, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-building-small-town/409047/15 "2007-06-24T17:23:09Z")
The Harbor Towers Apartments in Escanaba, MI is 18 floors. Population 12,600. [Link.](http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?cityID=3675) This little piece of trivia stuck with me the one time I was in Escanaba and a Upper Penninsula native pointed out that it is the tallest buliding in the UP. It was not a very surprising fact. More like “Huh . . . yeah, no kidding.” ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2007, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-building-small-town/409047/16 "2007-06-25T03:41:43Z")
Frankfort, KY (pop ~30k) has the 28-floors tall “[Capital Plaza Office Tower](http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=capitalplazaofficetower-frankfort-ky-usa)”. ---
**Author:** ![Ms.Pumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@Ms.Pumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms.Pumpkin)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2007, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-building-small-town/409047/17 "2007-06-25T04:08:48Z")
I don’t really have much to add, I think the tallest building in my town is 7 stories, but this thread got me thinking, and I’m pretty sure I’ve never been higher than the 4th floor of any building in my life. I feel so small town, now. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2007, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-building-small-town/409047/18 "2007-06-25T04:24:14Z")
At 56 floors, the [Rinku Gate Tower Building](http://web.kyoto-inet.or.jp/people/tk7716/06wakayamaawazi/06awa12.JPG) is Japan’s second tallest building. It’s located in Izumi-sano, which has a population of about 100,000. That’s not terribly small, but not big either by Japanese standards. ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2007, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-building-small-town/409047/19 "2007-06-25T05:46:33Z")
It’s not such a small town, nor such a tall building in the traditional sense, but [State College](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_college), pop. 38,000, has the [Beaver Stadium](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_Stadium), capacity 107,000. ---
**Author:** ![ejtx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b77776/32.png) [@ejtx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ejtx)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2007, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-building-small-town/409047/20 "2007-06-25T05:51:25Z")
[QUOTE=tremorviolet] I wish I could remeber what town it was in but on the way from Austin to Witchita Falls, TX there’s a small town with a huge gothic looking structure. It easily takes up an entire downtown block (of a typical Texas smal town downtown) and kinda loomes menacingly over the town. It was kinda creepy… [/QUOTE] If you were going up 281 you probably saw the [Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells](http://durangotexas.com/eyesontexas/textour/mineralwells/bakerhotel.htm). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-building-small-town/409047.md?page=2)