Stemmons Tower, Downtown Skyline — 1963
by Paula Bosse
Photo by Squire Haskins, 1963 (UTA Libraries, Special Collections)
by Paula Bosse
Another fantastic photo from premier Dallas photographer, Squire Haskins: the new Stemmons Tower (East), with the Dallas skyline serving as a dramatic nighttime backdrop. (See this photo really big at the UTA website, here.)
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Sources & Notes
“Stemmons Tower with downtown Dallas, Texas in the background; photo taken at night,” by Squire Haskins, taken on April 19, 1963; from the Squire Haskins, Inc. Photography Collection, University of Texas at Arlington Libraries, Special Collections (more info on this photo can be found here).
The first of several “towers,” construction of Trammel Crow’s Stemmons Tower East began in the summer of 1961 and was open and leasing by December 1962. This office complex was part of the grand vision of the Trinity Industrial District and the “Stemmons corridor” (click ad below to see a much larger image).
Jan. 1963
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Copyright © 2018 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
Cool photo!
Here is an aerial from a little later when the South Tower was under construction: https://i.imgur.com/zzpHUIj.jpg
And here is a DMN article from about the same time: https://goo.gl/VXMLNJ
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Did anyone ever go to the statue in the center of the Stemmons towers area at night? There was (still is?) a statue of a group of human like figures in robes and we’d take people there at night and tell them it was a witches coven! It looked pretty scary.
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Hey Tom…well, I’m unsure exactly when the 3 figures were taken away, but I know the Towers were very aware of all the people coming there daily “at night” (preferably after 10:00 pm) to see (or to share) “the 3 witches of Stemmons Towers,” including me since the very late 1960s. The worry to the Towers was one of–you guessed it–liability. At some point in the late 1980s, or early in the 1990s, the Tower managers/owners decided to get rid of the 3 statues, which now “had a life of their own.” (Remember that there was a lot of traffic around the buildings at night.) So what was back-then a wonderful story to tell (or to accentuate to some unwary folks), is now just a part of Dallas’ “macabre” past, a “ghost” story that remains in the memories of we who had the deep & vast imagination to spin a Texas yarn to unsuspecting others! I took a few dozen of my friends there, plus my oldest son…until the witches suddenly vanished in the night! (Pity, too.)
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Sorry to hear this. I attended SMU 1970-72. The witches were always a fun place to take people. I was just remembering them and searching for a pix, so far haven’t found any, but instead sad to hear they are gone. I wonder if they were moved somewhere so still can be seen?
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[…] the background — like the wistful child told he’s too little to play with the big kids. “Stemmons Tower, Downtown Skyline — 1963.” (Source: photo by Squire Haskins, Special Collections, University of Texas at […]
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[…] stacks of floors of one of the Stemmons Towers looms in the sky over I-35 northwest of Downtown […]
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[…] See a cool night-time photo of Stemmons Tower #1 in the 2018 Flashback Dallas post “Stemmons Tower, Downtown Skyline — 1963.” […]
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