Lincoln Bank Tower (formerly the German American National Bank)

Text of informational sign: “Construction of the Lincoln Tower started less than a month before the stock market crash of October 1929 that signaled the beginning of the Great Depression. Completed in November 1930, the 312-foot Tower was for many years Indiana’s tallest building. Its design, developed by the Cleveland firm of Walker and Weeks, was based on the Tribune Tower in Chicago. The Lincoln Tower is a monument to the German Immigrant in Fort Wayne. The project was conceived and directed by Charles Bueching, a first generation German immigrant who was president of the Lincoln National Bank and Trust Co. from 1929 to 1962. A. M. Strauss, a German Immigrant, was the local architect. The construction Firm of Bueching and Hagermann, a partnership of German Immigrants, built the Tower. The Lincoln Bank and Trust, which funded the project, was the direct descendent of the German-American Bank of Fort Wayne founded in 1905. In the face of anti-German sentiment during World War 1, the bank changed its name in 1918 to the Lincoln National Bank, which operated until 1993. The Lincoln Tower continues as an office building.”