By January 2019, Austin’s moonlight-tower restoration team faced a choice: manufacture replacement leg members or decommission more towers to borrow sound ones. The supply taken from storage and other towers could no longer carry the work forward, Enertech Resources told Austin Energy. [1]
The city had lit its tower streetlights in May 1895. A century later, their restoration became part of the municipal utility’s centennial celebrations. [2]
Where is this place?
Moonlight Towers, Austin, Texas. This map locates the town or region, not a verified exact historic event site.
These were not ordinary lengths of square tubing. The legs used a distinctive star-shaped cross-section. A request to substitute different shapes had been declined by the Texas Historical Commission, which asked the utility and contractor to keep looking. [1]
Enertech’s report logged contact with 21 vendors. Some could not handle the required material or dimensions; others could not keep such long, slender members sufficiently straight. Extrusion also failed the report’s straightness requirement. [1]
The resulting letter, signed by engineer Dale B. Shumaker, requested permission to mill steel replacements. Machining offered a way to retain the star profile rather than exchange it for a more readily available shape. The document records that proposal—not the later installation of new legs on any particular tower. [1]