This timeline of Austin's Moonlight Towers gives you their history at a glance.

A brief history of the "ingenious system that illuminated the nights of the capital of Texas in the early days of electricity."

1894

31 Moonlight Towers Purchased

1894-95

Moonlight Towers Installed

OUR STORY BEGINS IN 1893

Austin Dam or "Great Granite Dam" Across Colorado River Completed.

Dynamos in the Dam's Powerhouse Will Generate Electricity for the Moonlight Towers.

1895

Dam Powerhouse Completed

May 6, 1895

First Austin Moonlight Tower Lit!

1900

Austin Dam and Powerhouse Destroyed by Flood

1920s

Carbon Arc Lamps Replaced by Incandescent Bulbs

1936

Incandescent Bulbs Replaced by Mercury Vapor Bulbs

1936

12-foot, multicolored neon "headresses" attached to the tops of the Moonlight Towers

1967

First Moonlight Tower Zilker Park Christmas Tree

1970

Named Texas State Landmarks

1976

Listed in National Register of Historic Places

1993

Dazed and Confused, filmed in Austin, popularizes the term "Moontower."

1993-95

Major Restoration

1995

Centennial

TONIGHT