The William R. Snodgrass Tennessee Tower (also known as the Tennessee Tower) is a skyscraper in downtown Nashville, Tennessee that houses Tennessee government offices. The tower was built for the National Life and Accident Insurance Company and served as its National Life Center until the State of Tennessee acquired it on January 3, 1994. Over 1000 state employees who had been assigned to numerous locations now work in the building.
The building is named in honor of William R. Snodgrass, a career public servant who served as Tennessee's Comptroller of the Treasury from 1955 till 1999.
The tower was struck by lightning on August 31, 2003, which caused a firepump to turn on the sprinkler system. This caused flooding and extensive damage to the elevator shafts.
Prior to being purchased by the state, the building was used to display messages by turning on lights in the windows on the front of the building. After being dormant for 10 years a new message - "Peace" was displayed on December 17, 2007.
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Famous quotes containing the words snodgrass and/or tower:
“Riot in Algeria, in Cyprus, in Alabama;
Aged in wrong, the empires are declining,
And China gathers, soundlessly, like evidence.
What shall I say to the young on such a morning?—
Mind is the one salvation?—also grammar?—
No; my little ones lean not toward revolt.”
—William Dewitt Snodgrass (b. 1926)
“Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.
So blend the turrets and shadows there
That all seem pendulous in air,
While from a proud tower in the town
Death looks gigantically down.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)