The Norwood Tower and the Last LBJ

Happy Tuesday from downtown Austin. I am standing in front of my favorite Austin buildings - The Norwood Tower.  Besides being a beautiful building, it is also home to the Austin’s last LBJ. Read on and find out more.

This Gothic Revival office building featuring finials and gargoyles was the city’s first skyscraper. The lobby contains Texas limestone flooring and marble columns. The plaster ceiling is highlighted with gold leaf medallions.

“The Norwood Tower is the most beautiful building in Austin. We used to call it ‘frozen music.” – Lady Bird Johnson

From the building’s website we find this information about the building and owners. In 1925, municipal securities and bonds broker Ollie Osborn Norwood (1887-1961) recognized the need for professional space in a city with only two other office buildings, the eight-story Scarbrough Building (1910) and the nine-story Littlefield Building (1912). Described as an inventive gambler “with a talent for grasping entireties and total concepts,” the jovial, socially gifted Norwood first planned a six-story building but was convinced by his architects and bridge club partners, Bertram Giesecke and Watt Harris, to build a Gothic Revival “Castle in the Sky” that would rise 16 stories. In the entire city, only the Capitol and the University of Texas Tower were taller. The Norwood Building’s height was to surpass that of any other building in downtown Austin for almost 40 years.

 

“The Norwood Building was the first “skyscraper” in Austin. The top floor was occupied by the Butler family. A party was given for the 1938 graduates of Austin High, and I was among those invited. It was thrilling and at that point even frightening to be up so high.” – Liz Carpenter, Press Secretary to Lady Bird Johnson

Thomas J. Butler and his wife, Hazel, were the owners of The Norwood Tower when she approached him with the idea of building a residential penthouse on the 15th floor. The eight rooms of the ‘Sky Terrace’ opened onto a large, landscaped patio that faced a miniature gothic clock-house for the original clock, which chimed and kept time for many years before becoming too expensive to maintain. The Butlers enjoyed their panoramic view of the city from 1931 until 1966, when Mr. Butler could no longer climb the stairs required to reach the penthouse; the elevator went only as far as the 14th floor at the time.

Ok so how does the last LBJ figure into the Norwood Tower and for that matter who is the last LBJ. Well most people know that Texas native and President of the United States of America Lyndon Baines Johnson was known and referred to by his initials – LBJ. He ascended from his position as Vice President when President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. He moved into the White House on December 8, 1963 but he was not the only LBJ to move into the Philadelphia Avenue home that day. Three other LBJs moved in with him that day. President Johnson was serving as a Senatorial aide to Richard M. Kleberg, owner of the famous King Ranch in South Texas, when he had a first date with a young lady named Claudia Alta Taylor at the historic Austin Driskill Hotel. Johnson keep once away that Claudia, known to most as “Lady Bird” was the one for him and he proposed that day, but she waited ten weeks to give him the answer of yes. After they married she would be known as Lady Bird Johnson hence that second LBJ in the family. The last two LBJs were their daughters, Lynda Bird Johnson and Luci Baines Johnson. Lynda was named for her parents while Luci was names for a paternal aunt as well being given her father’s middle name.

The Johnson’s connection to the Norwood came in 1997 when the family purchased the tower. Luci Baines Johnson and her second husband, Ian Turpin, chose to follow the lead of the Butlers and renovated the penthouse as their residence. This move twenty years ago affirmed their commitment to downtown revitalization, urban living, and the building’s rich, historic significance.

 

“The Norwood Tower has had a pull on the heartstrings of generations of Johnsons since 1950. Mother’s generation called it the ‘frozen music building.’ My generation called it the ‘wedding cake’ building. Today, we call it home for our business and residence and we hope someday you will, too!” – Luci Baines Johnson

 

The couple remodeled the 14th and 15th floors for their residence, converting the quaint Gothic clock-house on the 15th floor into a tiny chapel. The presence of two 5,000-gallon water tanks on the 15th floor, which originally provided water pressure for the entire building, made it possible for Johnson to add a raised lap pool with a waterfall, surrounded by aquatic plants. The 14th floor suite, which is cruciform in shape, opens to large terraces on each of the building’s four corners. With the help of master gardeners, she completely designed the landscaping to include native plants from five topographies of Texas.

To keep their home grounded in its Texas heritage, Luci and Ian chose building materials indigenous to Texas – limestone, mesquite, and curly maple.

“Living downtown in the Norwood Tower is our commitment to the future of Austin. I believe every downtown is the physical, spiritual and economic heart of a community. It is our passionate desire to be a part of the marvelous parade revitalizing and recapturing the soul of this city we love. Living in Austin is a gift to all of our lives. It is our family’s joy and privilege to give back to the city we love.” – Luci Baines Johnson

{Author’s notes – the vintage 1931 photograph is courtesy of The Stateman newspaper’s website, all other photographs were taken by the author.}