Machine-History.Com

In the Austin of the 1890's many areas were underdeveloped, hilly, and unpaved. This presented a problem when it came to lighting the streets. In place of normal street lights the City of Austin opted for 31 towers to provide artificial light to the rapidly growing city. Such light towers were already a common form of lighting in many U.S. cities in the late 19th century. The Austin light towers, erected in 1894-1895 by the Fort Wayne Electric Company of Indiana, were approximately 165 feet tall, weighed about 5,000 pounds and used a series of guy wires to keep them vertical.