Believe it or not, America is peppered with abandoned skyscrapers. Monuments to hubris, these sleeping giants have more than their fair share of fascinating stories to tell, with everything from Hollywood stars to financial scandal, devastating fires, criminal busts and bootlegging starring in their checkered pasts. Captured by photographer Leland Kent of Abandoned Southeast, click or scroll on to take a tour of nine of the region's forsaken towers and uncover their surprising secrets...
Known as “The Old JEA Tower”, the Jacksonville Electric Authority building is found in Jacksonville, Florida. It was completed in 1955 and served as the headquarters for the Independent Life and Accident Insurance Company for many years. Photgraphed here by Leland Kent of Abandoned Southeast, how did such a grand property end up falling into decay?
Soaring up 260 feet, the skyscraper encompasses 162,000 square feet and during its prime boasted street-level retail stores along Julia Street, a restaurant and a sky lounge on the top floor – offering priceless views across the city.
Designed in mid-century modern style, the concrete tower was mostly formed from granite, marble and limestone, three materials that can be found throughout the building’s once-grand interior. In 1975, Independent Life moved out and relocated its headquarters to the newly finished Independent Square development, now known as the Wells Fargo Center.
In 1976, the Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) bought the property and set up shop inside. Yet by the late 1980s, JEA had moved most of its offices to the Universal Marion Building, officially abandoning the building in March 1999. Inside, many of the abandoned interior spaces still bear hallmarks of their former lives.
Sadly, the JEA Tower stood vacant for almost 20 years, claiming the title of downtown Jacksonville’s tallest abandoned structure. However, the forlorn building's fortunes may be about to change. Back in 2019, it was snapped up by the Augustine Development Group for $3.7 million (£2.8m), and according to the Jacksonville Daily Record, Jacksonville City Council approved a hefty preservation grant in 2021 to help finance its redevelopment into a 135-unit apartment complex. Watch this space...
It's hard to imagine the tallest building of any major US city being left to rack and ruin, but that's exactly what has happened to Memphis's most lofty skyscraper. Looming over downtown, the 38-storey 100 North Main – standing 430 feet tall – is an all too painful reminder of the city's economic decline that set in during the late 20th century.
The stark skyscraper is better known as the Union Planters building, thanks to the illuminated 'UP Bank' sign that was installed on the roof not long after the structure's completion in the mid-1960s. Many Memphians assumed the financial institution had its HQ in the building, hence the tower's alternative name. The sign was removed in 2005 following the takeover of Union Planters National Bank and today only the dilapidated blue box it was mounted on remains.
In the 60s and 70s, and for much of the 1980s, the upscale skyscraper ruled the skies, housing top law firms, title companies and other professional businesses. The tower's number one draw, however, was the fabulous revolving restaurant that stood atop the roof beneath the iconic 'UP Bank' sign. In its day, it reportedly attracted star diners including Elvis Presley and Isaac Hayes.
A groovy hangout back way back when, the destination eatery was the place to be seen and even boasted a Japanese rock garden in the clouds. The garden closed in 1971, rumour has it because visitors kept throwing things off the roof, but the rotating restaurant, which operated under several different names including Top of the 100 and the Pinnacle, held on for several decades. During the late 20th century, plummeting demand for office space in downtown Memphis precipitated the skyscraper's decline.
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The tired property was put on the market in 2006 for $20 million (£15m) and by 2012, only 30% of the building was reportedly occupied. The last tenants left in 2014 to make way for an ambitious hotel renovation, but the project failed due to lack of funds. Though it has sat barricaded and empty for years, there's new hope. As of November 2021, six development groups are in contention to redevelop the skyscraper, so watch this space!
Upon its completion in 1906, the 16-storey Brown-Marx Tower was the tallest building in Birmingham, Alabama, and the second to be constructed on the intersection of First Avenue and 20th Street. It would go on to become known as the 'Heaviest Corner on Earth' by virtue of the quartet of hefty skyscrapers that ended up gracing it.
The steel-framed skyscraper, which soars over 210 feet, was massively expanded in 1908. According to John Morse, founder of Bhamwiki, Birmingham's former police chief, George Bodeker, who was dismissed amid allegations he had taken bribes from gambling houses, opened his eponymous detective agency in 1914 on the second floor. The following year, the man who reportedly ousted him, fellow ex-police chief CW Austin, is said to have brazenly moved his Secret Service Agency two levels up. Talk about funded by ill-gotten gains...
Less controversial tenants who weren't at loggerheads with each other are said to have ranged from US Steel to the Brown-Marx Cigar Company and Watts Realty, and the skyscraper even housed a pool hall at one point. Over the decades, the tower's fortunes declined and by the early 2000s, the ageing building's remaining tenants had exited for the last time. In 2016, Leland Kent captured the building's decline in breathtaking detail.
A $22 million (£16.5m) renovation, which would have converted the abandoned space into a high-end condo and retail complex, fell through. More bad luck befell the skyscraper in 2006 when glass mysteriously started falling from its windows onto the streets below and again in 2009, when the aluminium façade that had covered the tower's ornate Beaux-Arts cornice since the 1970s, came crashing down during a windstorm, as reported by Advance Local.
The structure's fortunes appeared to be looking up in 2012, after a real estate agency purchased the skyscraper and moved its offices to the first-floor annex building. However, the company offloaded the tower in 2017 to a hotel developer, who carried out stabilisation works in 2019. Now, Campo Architects of New Orleans have designed stunning plans to transform the building. By winter 2022, the Brown-Marx Tower is set to be a 232-room hotel, with a restaurant, bar, meeting spaces and 1,200-square-foot gym.
The third of the four skyscrapers that make up the 'Heaviest Corner of Earth' in downtown Birmingham, the 16-storey Empire Building opened in 1909. Coming in at 247 feet, the Classical Revival beauty stole the Brown-Marx Tower's crown to become the Alabaman city's tallest structure, though like its shorter neighbour, only held the title for several years.
No expense was spared on the elaborate skyscraper. The exterior was clad in exquisitely moulded terracotta and decorated with pink granite Doric columns along with busts of architect William Leslie Welton and project superintendent Frederick Larkin rather pretentiously depicted as heroic historical figures. Inside, the building's majestic rooms and corridors were finished in the finest marble and mahogany.
The skyscraper hit the headlines in 1917 when Harry Gardiner, aka 'The Human Fly', climbed to the top with his bare hands. Perhaps 'Spider Man' would have been a more appropriate nickname. The tower's tenants varied over the years. In the early days, the ground floor featured a drugstore, while the upper storeys contained offices rented by various businesses.
A local bank repurposed the skyscraper in 1965 and had a branch on the ground floor until 2009 – the safety deposit boxes are captured in this more recent photo. The Empire Building fell vacant that same year, its glory days long gone. Seemingly worthless and unwanted, the architectural gem was abandoned and languished on the market until 2012, when it was snapped up by a team of investors.
A $27 million (£20.3m) makeover brought the building back from the brink, when it reopened in 2017 as a five-star boutique hotel operated by Marriott International. Disappointingly, the firm's execs had to ditch 'The Empire Hotel', their original name choice, following an objection from New York City's Empire State Building. Instead, they opted to go with 'The Elyton Hotel' instead, according to Bham Now.
The fourth and final skyscraper on the 'Heaviest Corner on Earth', the John Hand Building was built in 1912. Rising to 287 feet, the 21-storey tower was the tallest structure in Birmingham for a mere year before it was surpassed by another soaring edifice. The skyscraper was originally called the American Trust and Savings Bank Building, after the bank of the same name that had commissioned it.
Like the similarly ornate Empire Building opposite, the skyscraper was designed in a Classical Revival style and shares the same architect, William Leslie Welton. In 1970, the tower was renamed the John Hand Building, after the bank's president, while the bank went through a number of name changes itself over the decades, becoming AMSouth Bancorporation that same year.
In 1994, AMSouth Bancorporation relocated to two shiny new towers, leaving the John Hand Building vacant. The skyscraper lay abandoned for a number of years, until it was acquired at auction for the knockdown price of $1.5 million (£1.1m) by financier Jimmy Taylor, who restored the building at a cost of $20 million (£15m) and made it the headquarters of his new financial institution.
Taylor opened a louche gentleman's club in 1999, charging an annual membership fee of $20,000 (£15k). Located on the 20th and 21st floors, the luxe club was kitted out with the finest interior fixtures, including plush leather seating and a Steinway piano. Later down the line, women were reportedly permitted to join and the membership fee was reduced to attract new patrons.
The party ended in the early 2010s, following the collapse of Taylor's bank, along with his personal bankruptcy, reported by Advance Local. The club shut down and the John Hand Building was seized by the authorities and eventually sold on. The skyscraper is now the headquarters of same-day delivery service Shipt, while the former member's club has been converted into an event space. We wonder if this magnificent vault door is still visible. We think it would make for the world's coolest panic room!
The tallest skyscraper in Ensley, Alabama, the handsome Art Deco Ramsay-McCormack Building was completed in 1929 and has a height of 144 feet. The 10-storey tower is named after the development company that built it, more specifically the founders of the firm, Erskine Ramsay and Carr McCormack.
The ground floor was home to the Ensley Bank, while US Steel occupied several of the upper levels. Despite undertaking a renovation in 1970, US Steel ended up vacating the building after the closure of the Ensley Steel Works in 1975, and by 1979 the tower was shuttered for good.
In 1983, US Steel sold the skyscraper, which was in a perilous state of disrepair at this time, to the City of Birmingham for the minuscule price of a dollar. The City funded a study in the late 1990s that looked into whether the landmark structure could be renovated and repurposed. The conclusions didn't make for pleasant reading.
The extreme fixer-upper was found to be heavily contaminated with asbestos and lead. Making matters worse, a large number of structural issues plaguing the balcony and roof levels were uncovered. Needless to say, the skyscraper was deemed a toxic hazard and all-round health and safety nightmare and despite a recommendation to clean it up, little was done.
Proposals came and went, and a local attorney even attempted to sue the City, to force it to do something about the building. At long last a decision was made but not the one historical conservationists would have preferred. The powers that be opted to knock down the toxic tower. The final stage of demolition took place in April 2021 and a replacement five-story structure, that will include materials salvaged from the original building, is set to be built in its place.
Standing 287 feet tall, the 19-storey Thomas Jefferson Tower in downtown Birmingham opened in 1929 as a splendid 350-room hotel. One of its most fascinating features is the rooftop mooring mast for Zeppelins and other airships, which is said to be the only surviving one of its kind in the world.
According to the Smithsonian Magazine, the hotel's bellboys ran a lucrative bootlegging operation during the prohibition years, procuring rye whiskey from the nearby police station and selling it on to grateful guests.
Wowing with fancy suites rocking all the latest mod cons, from private bathrooms and AC to TVs and radios, as well as top-class amenities and entertainment, the hotel was a veritable celebrity magnet. The roll call of famous guests includes Marilyn Monroe, who would purportedly turn heads when she walked up the grand staircase to the ballroom, Ray Charles and US presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.
As the economy in the 1970s started to stagnate, so too did the fortunes of the regal hotel. The Thomas Jefferson came under new ownership and was converted into the Cabana Hotel, with its marble floors covered in shag pile carpets and its soaring ceilings sadly lowered.
By the early 1980s, the tower had completed its descent from riches to rag, having been hit by two devastating fires, and the Cabana closed its doors in 1983. After two failed renovation projects, the long-abandoned building was finally overhauled in 2015 at a cost of $30 million (£22.5m) and turned into a deluxe apartment complex.
The 27-floor City Federal Building was Birmingham's tallest structure from 1913 until 1972, and at 325 feet, remains the loftiest neo-classical skyscraper in the Southern US. Originally built for the Jefferson County Bank, the tower turned out to be something of a curse. The bank's collapse in 1915 is said to have been partly triggered by the eye-watering cost of the building.
The skyscraper was sold on and renamed the Comer Building in honour of former Alabama Governor BB Comer, and had a diversity of respectable tenants, including the city's press club and the Women's Missionary Union. The tower was treated to a $250,000 (£188k) refurb and got another name change in 1962, after it was bought by City Federal Savings & Loan.
One of the most popular radio stations in the South, WSGN-AM, moved into the penthouse in 1964. However, fast forward to the 1990s and the skyscraper was a shadow of its former self. The tower was vacated in 1995 and years of neglect took their toll. In the latter half of the decade, a fence had to be constructed around the base to protect pedestrians from chunks of masonry that were falling from the crumbling façade.
In 2005, the abandoned building was acquired by an Atlanta-based developer, who embarked on a vast renovation project that converted the dilapidated office space into 84 upscale condos. The ambitious conversion hasn't been without its problems, however. It was initially a struggle to sell the condos, with a handful of units offloaded at knockdown prices.
On top of this, the building was in the news for all the wrong reasons in 2013, when the leader of one of Birmingham's biggest heroin and cocaine rings was apprehended in his condo on the 12th floor. Later sentenced to 22 years behind bars, the drug kingpin threw $60,000 (£45k) in cash out of the window, just prior to his arrest – ironic when you consider the structure was originally built as a bank...
Known as the Laura Street Trio, the Florida National Bank Building, the Bisbee Building, and the Florida Life Building are found in downtown Jacksonville, Florida. Considered the most endangered historical buildings in the city, the towers were all built a few years after the Great Fire of 1901, the third-largest city fire in American history. The first to be built was the Florida National Bank Building, which opened its doors in 1902, when it was known as the Mercantile Exchange Bank.
The property was the work of Baltimore-based architect Edward H. Glidden, who opted for a luxurious neo-classical revival design, with oversized windows and prominent marble columns. Sadly, the Mercantile Exchange Bank didn’t last long. It was purchased by what would soon become Florida National Bank in 1905. The new owners expanded the building, but luckily they retained its period features, while the structure underwent interior renovations in 1916.
During the project, a huge skylight (pictured here) was added and the grand central banking lobby was expanded and decorated with walls of lavish marble, resulting in the building's nickname: the Marble Bank. Florida National Bank left in the 1960s and Jacksonville National Bank took over the space, restoring many of the building's historic design elements. Later, the bank expanded into the other two buildings in the trio.
The Bisbee Building was completed in 1909 and spans 10 floors. Designed by famed architect, Henry J. Klutho, it was one of Jacksonville’s first skyscrapers. The last of the trio, the Florida Life Building, was completed in 1912. The narrow, 11-storey tower briefly held the title of the tallest building in Jacksonville. The Laura Street Trio was left empty in the mid-90s, but in 1999 a German investor bought the properties.
However, according to The Coastal, after the investor threatened to demolish the historic buildings, the City of Jacksonville took ownership in 2002, purchasing the structure for $3 million (£2.3m). Now owned by the Southeast Group, it was announced in September 2021 that renovation works to turn the trio into a Marriott hotel would begin in the near future. If you're hungry for more, Leland Kent has a brand new book, Abandoned Alabama: Exploring the Heart of Dixie, filled with incredible photography of more amazing abandoned spaces.
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