In 1930, the 29-story Sterick Building opened in downtown Memphis at the corner of Madison Avenue and North B.B.King Boulevard.
The white stone spire, topped with a green tile roof, was designed by Wyatt C . Hedrick and Company. Its name is a contraction of the original owner’s names, R. E. Sterling and Wyatt Hedrick. It is a Gothic Tower that stands 365 feet tall and, when completed it was the tallest building in the South. Little boys, such as Pat Mann of Brownsville, Tennessee, must have been convinced that it was the tallest building in the country. It was the tallest building in Tennessee until 1957 when the sleek Life & Casualty Tower in Nashville was completed with 31 floors and succeeded the Sterick Building as the tallest building in the South.
The Sterick Building, once called the “Queen of Memphis,” featured a white stone spire topped by a green tile roof. Its first three floors were made of granite and limestone. Eight high-speed elevators ferried the building’s 2,000 workers and guests to the upper floors, including the Regency Room Restaurant on the top.
A number of 30-to-45 story towers have been built in downtown Nashville since. The building also featured its own bank, pharmacy, barber shop,and beauty parlor. The Sterick Building architect lost money on the Sterick Building and in the 1960s, the building began to lose tenants as new, modern office buildings were built downtown. The Sterick Building became vacant in 1986 and remains so today.
In Nashville, the 31-story L&C Tower was topped slightly by the 31-story NLT Tower in 1970. In more recent years, a number of skyscrapers have been built in Nashville, including the 45 story 505 Tower built by Tony Garrantano on Church Street. He now has under construction a 60-story tower on Church Street next to the Nashville YMCA.
In the smaller cities of Knoxville and Chattanooga, the tallest buildings are the 27-story First Tennessee Plaza in Knoxville and the 21-story Republic Centre in Chattanooga.