描述
**Dallas Power & Light Building**
**Art by:** Chris Hytha
**Story by:** Mark Houser
On Thanksgiving night in 1931, red and amber floodlights bathed this highrise as Dallas celebrated adding five new skyscrapers to its skyline in an otherwise gloomy year. Colors swirled too in the stained glass entrance window, portraying a modern Prometheus gripping a web of cables to transmit current to the city below.
The power company was generated by John Strickland, a farmer and cotton gin owner in nearby Waxahachie who tried a grocery and wholesale business before managing the town's electric company. Teaming with investors, Strickland strung five small power companies together to power an interurban trolley line stretching from Dallas south to Waco and north to the Oklahoma border. He consolidated more utilities to create Texas Power & Light and Dallas Power & Light. When Strickland died in 1924, friends said his sole unrealized dream was to build a skyscraper for his companies.
Dallas stained glass artisans Joanna and Robert McIntosh created the original window for the main showroom, now a brewhouse; the office tower has been converted into apartments. Architects Otto Lang and Frank Witchell designed many Dallas highrises, including the first hotel ever built for Conrad Hilton. They honored another prolific duo, electrical inventors Thomas Edison and Charles Steinmetz, with carved busts flanking the limestone facade.
