How thanks to the impudent scammer in Chicago appeared the smallest skyscraper in the world

Let me tell you the sad story of the smallest skyscraper in the world, which was built in 1919 in Texas with the money of deceived investors.

As expected in such stories, the victims of deception turned to the court for help, and he refused to help them.

Fast forward to the beginning of the 20th century, in the Texas town of Wichita Falls. In 1912, oil was discovered in Wichita County, resulting in oil fever. Everyone knows: where there is oil, there is money. People poured into Texas from all over the country. Wichita Falls, until then a small regional center, began to grow rapidly.

New oil production offices were constantly opening, land was bought and sold, the right to develop, process and so on. But there was only one problem: in the town there was a catastrophic lack of commercial real estate. Companies simply did not have a place to rent offices, and large transactions were often made right on the street or in temporary tents, which served as the headquarters of young oil companies with important names.

But then a man appeared who promised to solve the problem of the city. Design Engineer J.D. McMahon proposed plans for the construction of a large office building, next to the existing brick one-story building with a big name - the Newby building. MacMahon told all the business people of the city about the beautiful tall building that he was ready to design and build, there would be only money!

Of course, the money was found. All businessmen understood the profitability of the proposal, especially since everyone knew about the beautiful construction projects of new skyscrapers, going on at that time in other American cities, in New York and in Chicago. Although before the construction of the main skyscraper of the XX century there were still a dozen and a half years. In total, McMahon raised $ 200,000 from the noble Wichita Falls citizens (in terms of the current rate, it is almost three million dollars).

He presented them with the plan of his brainchild. The new oil rich were not particularly trained in how to study the drawings, and they didn’t have much time for this. The main thing that these people looked at was the height of the proposed structure - 480 feet, which is slightly less than 150 meters. Modestly, MacMahon proposed a big name for the new structure: The Newby MacMahon Building. Everyone liked this name.

However, already during the construction process, investors realized that something had gone wrong, their future skyscraper was too small. And when it was completed, it turned out that it was a tiny 12-meter four-story building, moreover, without a ladder. To get to the upper floors, one had to use a stepladder.

Of course, the angry townspeople immediately sued the swindler MacMaon. But in court it turned out that the drawings submitted to investors indicated all sizes not in feet, but in inches! (Here it must be clarified that the feet are indicated by one dash and the inches by two. That is, instead of 480 'as a height, MacMahon’s drawing brought 480 ". This small detail went unnoticed by unhappy investors, but it was extremely important - the court refused to satisfy their lawsuit, Deciding that the engineer built exactly what was promised in the documents.

The only thing that defrauded real estate investors could recapture was the relatively small money paid to the company that promised to install an elevator in the new building. Seeing its true size, they simply refused the order and returned the fee.
The rest of the money J.D. MacMahon pocketed and left Texas home. In those years, it was possible to get a very good $ 200,000, however, the story is silent about what exactly happened to our fraudster. The network does not even find photos of this cunning person.

Many years later, the new owner nevertheless built a staircase inside, allowing access to the upper floors. Today, these narrow steep steps occupy about 25% of the area of the Newby-MacMahon building.

Nowadays, the building has a comic nickname "the smallest skyscraper in the world", which it received in the 1920s. On its floors there is an antique shop and an art workshop.

Be alert and do not trust scammers!