Moonlight towers are lighting structures designed to illuminate areas of a city at night.
The structures were popular in the late nineteenth century in cities across the United States and Europe; they were most common in the 1880s-1890s. In some places they were used when standard street-lighting systems — using smaller, shorter, and more numerous lamps — were impractically expensive. Other times they were used in addition to existing gas street lighting. The towers were designed to illuminate areas often of several blocks at once. Arc lamps were the most common method of illumination, known for their exceptionally bright and harsh light.
As incandescent electric street lighting became common, the prevalence of moonlight tower systems began to wane.
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| Moonlight Towers | |
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| U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
 A moonlight tower at night
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| Location: | Austin and vicinity |
| Nearest city: | Austin, Texas |
| Architect: | Fort Wayne Electric Co. |
| Added to NRHP: | July 12, 1976 |
| NRHP Reference#: | 76002071 |
Austin, Texas is the only city in the world known to still operate a system. The towers are 165 feet tall and have a fifteen foot foundation. This type of tower was manufactured in Indiana by Fort Wayne Electric Company and assembled onsite.[1] In 1894, the City of Austin purchased 31 used lighting towers from Detroit. A single tower cast light from six carbon arc lamps, illuminating a 1,500 ft (460 m) radius circle brightly enough to read a watch.
When first installed, the towers were connected to their own electric generators at the Austin dam (near present day Tom Miller Dam). Over the years they were switched from their original carbon-arc lamps (which were exceedingly bright and time consuming to maintain) to incandescent lamps in the 1920s, and mercury vapor lamps in the 1930s. Mercury vapor lighting allowed the installation of a switch at each tower's base. During World War II, a central switch was installed, allowing citywide blackouts in case of air raids.
In 1993 the city of Austin dismantled the towers and restored every bolt, turnbuckle and guy-wire as part of a $1.3 million project, the completion of which was celebrated in 1995 with a city-wide festival. The 17 remaining towers were listed in the National Register of Historic Places on July 12, 1976. The City of Austin has ordinances in place to protect the towers from demolition; however, since 2004 two of the remaining 17 towers have been removed from their original locations. The towers at 4th & Nueces and 1st & Trinity have been removed due to new construction. It is unclear whether the towers will be replaced, or erected elsewhere.
| “ | This is one of 17 that remain out of 31 towers erected 1894-95 and in continuous use since. Their carbon arc lights then illuminated the entire city. Now mercury vapor lamps provide beacons for many miles on roads and airway, from dusk to dawn. Austin is said to be unique in this dramatic method of lighting.[2] | ” |
Austin-based writer/director Richard Linklater used one of the moonlight towers as one of the main settings in his 1993 film Dazed and Confused. The scene inspired the line, "Party at the moontower."
An Austin band called "Coffee Sergeants" released an album in 1993 entitled Moonlight Towers featuring a track with the same name.[3]
An Austin band called "Moonlight Towers" formed in 2001 and has released two albums: 2002's Moonlight Towers and 2005's Like You Were Never There.[4]
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