

The Littlest Skyscraper: How J.D. McMahon’s 480-Inch Con Fooled Investors in 1919
In the oil boom days of 1919 Wichita Falls, Texas, a bold con by J.D. McMahon gave the city one of its most bizarre landmarks: the Newby-McMahon Building, famously known as the “world’s littlest skyscraper.” This four-story, 40-foot-tall building became a monument to both investor gullibility and the power of fine print.
The Pitch: A Texas-Sized Skyscraper
As the oil rush transformed Wichita Falls into a bustling business hub, office space was in high demand. J.D. McMahon, a petroleum landman and structural engineer from Philadelphia, saw an opportunity. He pitched investors on a grand skyscraper project—an annex to the existing Newby Building—promising a towering 480-foot structure that would rival the tallest buildings in Texas and the world.
Investors, flush with oil money, eagerly bought in. McMahon raised $200,000 (worth over $3 million today) to fund the project, showing blueprints for a modern high-rise. But there was a crucial detail: the plans were labeled “480” with a double-prime symbol (″), denoting inches, not feet.
The Construction: Inches, Not Feet
When construction began, the reality quickly set in. Instead of a monumental skyscraper, workers erected a narrow, four-story tower just 40 feet tall—precisely 480 inches. The building was so small that it lacked an elevator or even stairs; ladders were needed to reach the upper floors. The structure was just 10 feet wide and 16 feet long, with about 118 square feet per floor.
The Fallout: A Legal Swindle
Enraged, the investors took McMahon to court, accusing him of fraud. But McMahon’s defense was airtight: the blueprints and all legal documents clearly specified 480 inches, not feet, and he had never verbally promised otherwise. The judge ruled in McMahon’s favor, and the investors’ signatures on the plans sealed their fate. McMahon promptly vanished from Wichita Falls, taking most of the $200,000 with him.
The only consolation for the investors was a partial refund from the elevator company, which canceled its contract after realizing the building’s true size.
A Building with a Legendary Legacy
The Newby-McMahon Building quickly became a source of embarrassment and local lore. It was featured in Ripley’s Believe It or Not! as “the world’s littlest skyscraper” and remains a quirky tourist attraction to this day. Despite its odd origins, the building survived the Great Depression, fires, and multiple threats of demolition, thanks to local preservation efforts.
Fun Facts and Trivia
- The building is only 40 feet tall, with four floors and no elevator or stairs—just ladders at first.
- Investors lost almost all of their $200,000, equivalent to over $3 million today.
- The scam was so clever that it held up in court: the plans said “480 inches,” and that’s exactly what was built.
- The building is still standing in downtown Wichita Falls and is now a historic landmark and tourist attraction.
- The Littlest Skyscraper was once featured in Ripley’s Believe It or Not!.
Related Topic You Might Find Interesting:
- Remembering the 1945 Empire State Building Disaster: When a Plane Met Skyscraper
- Why the Brooklyn Bridge Was Once Crossed by 17 Camels and 21 Elephants
- The story behind Glasgow’s iconic Duke of Wellington statue and its well-known traffic cone hat
Conclusion
The tale of the Newby-McMahon Building is a classic reminder to always read the fine print. J.D. McMahon’s audacious con left Wichita Falls with a unique piece of architectural history and a cautionary tale for investors everywhere. Today, the “world’s littlest skyscraper” stands as both a monument to Texas ambition—and a legendary example of the devil being in the details.

10 world’s most destructive and dangerous volcanic eruptions in history
Volcanic eruptions can devastate cities, change the world's atmosphere, and devastate economic systems. They can create molten lava rivers, mudslides, suffocating ash, and poisonous gases that cause chaos around the world for years. A volcanic explosion's effects can be massive, from its size to its death toll to its economic cost. Here is ten world’s most destructive and dangerous volcanic eruptions in history.

how Ferris wheel invented
In 1891, Chicago challenged engineers to create a structure to surpass the Eiffel Tower for the World's Columbian Exposition. George Washington Gale Ferris jr. responded with the original Ferris Wheel, a giant rotating structure elevating visitors above the city. This invention became an iconic attraction at the fair.

William James Sidis: The smartest person yet forgotten by people
William James Sidis, who was only 11 years old when he enrolled in Hardvard, finished his primary and secondary schooling in less than a year. He knew eight foreign languages by the age of eight and even invented his own language, "vedergood."

1972 Andes Plane Crash Survivor recall the terrifying Struggles to Stay Alive
On October 13, 1972, a plane carrying a rugby team from Uruguay crashed in the Andes between Chile and Argentina. The survivors were in brutal conditions - high altitude, bitter cold, and the lack of food—and faced the most terrible choice—eating the frozen flesh of their dead friends or starving to death themselves.

Shizo Kanakuri’s 1912 Olympic Marathon Finished 54 Years
At the 1912 Olympics, a marathon runner quit and went home to Japan without telling officials and was considered a missing person in Sweden for 50 years. In 1966, he was invited to complete the marathon. His time: 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes, and 20.379 seconds.

What is the story behind Wrigley chewing gum?
Wrigley's was originally a soap company that gifted baking powder with their soap. The baking powder became more popular than the soap so they switched to selling baking powder with chewing gum as a gift. The gum became more popular than the baking powder so the company switched to selling gum.

Hedy Lamarr, A Hollywood actress who also a mathematician and inventor
Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr was also a mathematician and the inventor of frequency hopping spread spectrum, a technology still used for bluetooth and wifi

8 Interesting Facts About The Unsinkable Ship, TITANIC
If you ask your friends what's the most famous ship in history the answer in most cases will be the same, of course the legendary Titanic. Its history is full of mysteries, at first it was a source of hope and national pride as well as proof of the triumphs of mankind but it soon became a source of nostalgia and pain, the extent of which cannot be described in words.

The mysterious secret of Dr James Barry
Before women were allowed to enroll in medical school, Margaret Ann Bulkley studied medicine and assumed the identity of Dr. James Barry for 56 years while dressing as a man. After 46 years of service as an army doctor officer, her secret was not made public until after her death in 1865.

Keith Sapsford: The Story of 14-Year-Old Stowaway
The final image of 14-year-old Australian Keith Sapsford, who aspired to travel the world. In February 1970, he sneaked into the wheel-well of a plane flying from Sydney to Tokyo. It opened mid-air & fell out. When a photographer was testing a new lens, he captured this moment on film and was surprised when it developed.

Knockers-up: waking up the Industrial Britain's Workers in 1900-1941
Before alarm clocks were invented, there was a profession called a knocker-up, which involved going from client to client and tapping on their windows (or banging on their doors) with long sticks until they were awake. It lasted into the 1920s.

Mother who spent entire life savings for daughter’s cancer treatment won the lottery
A mother won $2 million from a $10 scratch-off lottery ticket after she spent all of her entire life savings to pay her daughter’s cancer treatment. She bought the winning ticket after her daughter’s last cancer treatment.

Tunnels Dug by ancient giant sloths, A South American Megafauna
For years, scientists didn’t know what caused mysterious cave networks in South America. In 2010, they learned that the caves were actually tunnels dug by ancient giant sloths

Ea-Nasir: world's oldest written customer complaint
This clay tablet, written in cuneiform, is the oldest known written customer complaint about the delivery of poor quality copper ingots. Originally from ancient Babylon, the tablet dates back to 1750 BCE, and it was written by a customer named Nanni to a merchant named Ea-Nasir. It is currently housed in the British Museum.

Jack the Baboon operated a railroad, earned a living, and never made a mistake
A baboon worked as a signalman for the railroad in the late 1800s. He never made a mistake and worked for the railroad until the day he died.

During the 1996 Olympic bombing, Richard Jewell falsely accused of committing the crime after saving dozens of people
Richard Jewell, an American security guard, discovered a bomb during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and assisted in the evacuation, but was later wrongfully accused and faced public scrutiny. He was cleared, but it had a lasting impact on him until his death in 2007 at the age of 44.

Mario Segale, Developer Who Inspired Nintendo to Name Super Mario
Super Mario is named after real-life businessman Mario Segale, who was renting out a warehouse to Nintendo. After Nintendo fell far behind on rent, Segale did not evict them but gave them a second chance to come up with the money. Nintendo succeeded and named their main character after him.

The World’s First Seismograph: How Ancient China Detected Earthquakes 1,800 Years Ago
Over 1,800 years ago, long before modern technology, the ancient Chinese astronomer and inventor Zhang Heng created the world’s first seismograph in 132 AD. This ingenious bronze device could detect distant earthquakes by releasing small balls from dragons’ mouths into toads’ mouths—each indicating a different compass direction. Its historic detection of an earthquake 400 miles away astonished the imperial court and transformed the way societies understood and responded to seismic events.

The story of Bill Haast, who lived to be 100 despite his extensive snake venom injections
Bill Haast immunized himself by injecting snake venom into his blood for several years. He holds the Guinness World Record for surviving the most lethal snake bites, having been bitten over 172 times. Bill became known as "Snake Man" around the world and lived for over 100 years.

Blanche Monnier: Imprisoned For 25 Years For Falling in Love
Blanche Monnier, she was a French woman noted for her beauty, she wished to marry an old lawyer that her mother disapproved of, so she locked her in a small dark room in her attic for 25 years.

How Greek prime minister in 1830’s tried to spread the potato in Greece
A Greek prime minister in 1830’s tried to spread the potato in Greece but people weren’t interested so he put armed guards in front of shipments of potatoes so people would think they were important. People later started stealing these potatoes a lot which spread the crop to all of Greece.

Louis Le Prince Invented the motion picture camera, and then he mysteriously disappeared
Louis Le Prince, the inventor of motion pictures, vanished without a trace in 1890. Thomas Edison quickly claimed the title of "first and sole inventor of cinema," even taking Le Prince's son to court to dispute it. A few years later, the son also dies under mysterious circumstances.

Nearest Green, America's first known Black master distiller
Nathan "Nearest" Green was an African-American head stiller who is now more frequently referred to as a master distiller. He was renowned for imparting his distilling knowledge to Jack Daniel, the creator of Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey distiller, after Jack Daniel was freed from slavery following the American Civil War.

Marion Stokes recorded 30 years of television
Marion Stokes, a Philadelphia woman began taping whatever was on television in 1979 and didn’t stop until her death in 2012. The 71,000 VHS and Betamax tapes she made are the most complete collection preserving this era of TV. They are being digitized by the Internet Archive.

Albert Einstein’s brain after it was stolen from his body
Albert Einstein's brain was taken by the opportunistic pathologist who performed his autopsy hours after he died and kept in two jars for 30 years. The stolen brain of Albert Einstein was preserved in a cookie jar for 30 years until being discovered by a journalist.