A similar tower blotted the sky near Gettysburg battlefield until it was demolished in 2000.
We already have a fine observation tower (the Lighthouse) and it is authentic and evocative (the symbol of the St. Augustine Record).
We, The People, shall defeat any efforts to ruin our City with another tall building. The six story bank building erected in 1927 stirred outrage and resulted in our height ordinance.
We're a small town, not Paris or Seattle, and don't need a Space Needle or an Eiffel Tower, thank you.
May this tower never darken our Nation's Oldest City.
As The New York Times reported in 2000:
Much-Derided Gettysburg Observation Tower Is Felled
Published: July 4, 2000
One hundred and thirty-seven years after Union troops bested Gen. Robert E. Lee and his Confederate legions in their desperate gamble known as Pickett's charge, the National Park Service today demolished an observation tower that has been a magnet for criticism from historians, park officials and battlefield preservationists.
At 5:02 this afternoon, after four minutes of delay and two countdowns, a group of Civil War re-enactors, some dressed in Confederate gray and others in Union blue, fired dummy charges toward the tower. Less than 10 seconds later, 15.5 pounds of demolition charges that had been placed on the tower exploded, collapsing the structure.
Taking down the 307-foot structure, the Gettysburg National Tower, is the first step in an effort to restore the battlefield to its appearance in 1863, Park Service officials said.
''This is sacred ground,'' the secretary of the interior, Bruce Babbitt said. ''Americans come here to learn of their past, to understand how it was in those days when we remade ourselves as a new nation.''
1 comment:
Watch someone try to slip this by with a P.U.D.
If you've walked the downtown area lately, you'll see/feel the canyons created by Flagler College in its rapacious pursuit to build its business.
Every time someone "discovers" St. Augustine, they just have to put his/her mark on it.
Don't forget Pat Croce's "replica" tower in the Colonial Quarter. Is it vacant yet?
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