Moonlight towers are lighting structures designed to illuminate large areas of a city at night.

The structures were popular in the late nineteenth century among smaller cities across the United States and Europe, when standard street-lighting systems - using smaller, shorter, and more numerous lamps - were impractically expensive. The towers were designed to illuminate more city area at once via electric lighting. Arc lamps were the most common method of illumination, though they were known for their exceptionally bright and harsh light.

As regular street lighting grew more popular, the prevalence of moonlight tower systems began to wane. Austin, Texas is the only city in the world known to still operate a system, its 17 remaining towers, erected in 1895, were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and are therefore protected from demolition.

Texas Historical Commission Marker Text

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This is one of 17 that remain out of 31 towers erected 1894-95 and in continuous use since. Their carbon arc lights then illuminated the entire city. Now mercury vapor lamps provide beacons for many miles on roads and airway, from dusk to dawn. Austin is said to be unique in the dramatic method of lighting.Texas Historical Commission

External LInks

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Austin, Texas | Street lighting | Towers