Each week leading up to our 50th Anniversary, we’re bringing you stories from the community about the history of Hemisfair. This week, we turn our gaze upwards to learn more about the iconic Tower of the Americas!
After a long, hard battle, the City of San Antonio had won the honor of hosting the 1968 World’s Fair, but doing so brought with it certain requirements. Among them, the construction of 28 pavilions from nations, organizations and corporations and, perhaps most importantly, a “theme structure.” Each World’s Fair had presented a thematic building and many had become icons indelibly linked to the host cities like the Unisphere in New York (1964) and the Space Needle in Seattle (1962).
Red McCombs was the Executive Committee member asked to chair the development of the theme structure. To answer the question of just what to build, Red began reaching out to other cities and eventually found a contact at the world’s most famous such structure: The Eiffel Tower (built for the Exposition Universalle in 1889). Encouraged by dreams of building a similarly iconic structure in San Antonio, the Committee approved plans to build a Tower.
Architecture firm Ford, Powell & Carson was chosen to lead the effort. O’Neil Ford, in the words of Mr. McCombs was, “One of the premiere architects, not only in San Antonio but in his time.” Boone Powell was selected as project architect, with the task of erecting the tallest observation tower in the Western Hemisphere (at that time). In his 2003 book Hemisfair ’68 and the Transformation of San Antonio, Sterlin Holmesly records Mr. Powell’s memories of the challenges they faced. “When construction began, the city hadn’t yet funded the mast on the top, which, as towers go is always counted as part of the height of the tower.” As such, press releases and memorabilia were produced listing the Tower’s height as 622’ – not the 750’ of the completed tower.
Fundraising lagged behind construction deadlines. With a few tens of thousands of dollars, even drafting drawings was difficult, never mind the rigorous materials construction that needed to take place. Lacking access to a wind tunnel, Powell, along with engineer Ray Pinell, ended up building a small replica of the Tower rigged with fishing line and weights, and dunking it in the San Antonio River to test drag!
In the end, the funds were raised through twenty-year bonds, “paid off in advance,” Mr. McCombs says. “We burned the bonds in about eighteen years will a little ceremony at the base of the Tower … the Tower paid for itself, never cost the taxpayer a nickel, and, of course, still stands as a symbol of the San Antonio.”
We hope you’ll join us on April 6-8 to celebrate our 50th Anniversary at ¡Viva Hemisfair! Many thanks this week to Mr. McCombs for sharing part of his story, and for Mr. Holmesely’s excellent history book. If you’ve got a memory from the last 50 years of Hemisfair, we’d love to hear about at hemisfair.org/memories.