The Lincoln Tower

The Lincoln Tower. . Construction of the Lincoln Tower began less than a month before the stock market crash of October 1929 that signaled the beginning of the Great Depression. Completed in November 1930, the 312-foot Tower was for many years Indiana's tallest building. Its design, developed by the Cleveland firm of Walker and Weeks, was based on the Tribune Tower in Chicago. , The Lincoln Tower is a monument to the German immigrants of Fort Wayne. The project was conceived and directed by Charles Buesching, a first-generation German immigrant who was the president of the Lincoln National Bank and Trust Co. from 1929 to 1962. A. M. Strauss, a German immigrant, was the local architect. The construction firm of Buesching and Hagermann, a partnership of German immigrants, built the Tower. The Lincoln Bank and Trust, which funded the project, was itself the direct descendant of the German-American Bank of Fort Wayne founded in 1905. In the face of anti-German sentiment during World War I, the bank changed its name in 1918 to the Lincoln National Bank, which operated until 1993. The Lincoln Tower continues as an office building. , The Lincoln Tower under construction in 1930, looking north. (Michael L. Westfall Collection). , Presented by the Journal-Gazette Foundation , For more information, contact: Arch an organization for historic preservation