The World Smallest Skyscraper

Imagine that you are a city planner that makes an epic mistake costing your fledgling city hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Now imagine that for the rest of your career you have to see that mistake towering over you.  Well, maybe towering is a bit of an exaggeration.

The oil boom of the 1920s was in full swing, as tiny towns across the state of Texas found their cities thrust into a building boom. Eager to propel itself into the new future as a metropolitan  example, the city of Wichita falls hired a traveling architect to build the first skyscraper in town. Plans were drawn up and published in the city newspaper as the city planners and townspeople anxiously awaited the completion of a 40 story building.

Building began and, to the delight of the architect, no one seemed to notice that the plans were scaled in inches instead of feet.  Building exactly to these specifications the con man quickly finished the building and the skipped town, leaving behind him a 10 x 16 foot building and a very angry (and embarrassed) group of investors.

To save face, the investorsl attempted to sue the con-man, but because he had followed the plans to the letter they had no legal leg to stand on. Instead, they made it their mission to follow him from town to town warn of his trickery.

There was talk of tearing down the building in the 60s, but the building still stands if only as a testament to the dangers of assumptions.