See inside this abandoned skyscraper once home to the Secret Service

Inside one of America's most iconic abandoned skyscrapers

The tallest skyscraper in the American Deep South on its completion in 1929, the Sterick Building in downtown Memphis was once like a city within a city, featuring everything from retail stores, offices and a gourmet restaurant to a bank, barber shop and even a Secret Service outpost.

Unfortunately, the architectural masterpiece has stood abandoned for almost 40 years, but now promising development plans are heralding a fresh start for the iconic building.

Read on to tour the sprawling structure, discover its fascinating history and find out what the future holds for the landmark.

Soaring above the skyline

Recently captured in all its faded glory by Leland Kent of Abandoned Southeast, the 29-storey Sterick Building rivalled the soaring skyscrapers of New York and Chicago during its halcyon days.

The gigantic 350,883-square-foot edifice was kitted out with more than 2,000 windows which, according to Kent, would take a team of window washers 40 days to clean way back when.

The Queen of Memphis

Extra-robust, the steel-frame building is encased in concrete, while the lower floors are finished in Minnesota granite and Indiana limestone. Construction cost a total of $2.5 million, which translates to around $45 million (£35m) today.

A joint venture between Ross E Sterling, a Texan tycoon and one-time governor of the Lone Star State, and his son-in-law, the architect Wyatt C Hedrick, the prodigious skyscraper was described in 1929 as one of the “Seven Wonders of Memphis”. Other nicknames include the “Queen of Memphis” and the “Queen of the South”.

Gothic meets Art Deco

The building gets its name from its founders – Sterick is a contraction of the monikers Sterling and Hedrick.

Architecturally, the eye-catching structure combines the commercial Gothic and Art Deco styles fashionable in the 1920s. This aesthetic is exemplified in the tower's main entrance on North B B King Boulevard (formerly Third Street).

Though it's long been boarded up, efforts have been made to beautify this tired street-level exterior, which is adorned with vibrant murals painted by local artists in 2015. Now, let's step inside the building…

Luxurious lobby

Said to emulate “the beauty of a Moorish castle”, as reported by newspapers at the time of its opening, the original lobby was Renaissance in style with Italian pink and Belgian black marble walls and floors, a vaulted ceiling and ornate chandeliers that cost $1,000 apiece, which is around $18,000 (£14k) today.

In the 1950s, a pricey remodel of the space introduced the existing coral red and black marble, while a suspended ceiling was added and the chandeliers were replaced with recessed lighting and a mid-century starburst light fixture.

First-class amenities

The premium mixed-use skyscraper wasn't short of amenities, that's for sure. The lower floors featured everything from a pharmacy to a beauty parlour, along with a branch of the First National Bank (pictured). Its fixtures and fittings are worse for wear but still in place more or less, including the wooden teller counters.

Abandoned bank

A handsome clock stands pride of place over the revolving doors, while the ornate balustrades on the mezzanine remain in situ.

Interestingly, the building had a complicated ownership arrangement that frustrated redevelopment plans over the years. Sterling and Hedrick didn't actually own the land the tower stood on. It was on a 99-year lease arranged in 1926. In 2025, ownership of the structure was going to revert to the Grosvenor Estate, a group owned by the descendants of Napoleon Hill, a millionaire whose mansion previously graced the site.

Rent complications

The original agreement called for the monthly rent to be paid in gold or its equivalent value, a request made to avoid the ravages of inflation. However, this sort of arrangement was banned by Congress in 1935 when gold was vetoed as a currency. A lawsuit was filed by the landowners in 1975 to recalculate the rent at the price of gold at the time, but it ended up being unsuccessful.

Despite its crumbling fixtures, it's not hard to imagine this vast space repurposed as a restaurant or retail store.

State-of-the-art elevators

Just off the lobby are eight Otis automatic signal control lifts, which still feature their original bronze doors. They were the first of their kind in Memphis and the fastest in the city when installed, with a zippy speed of 900 feet per minute. Four of the lifts ascend to the 13th floor while the remaining four go all the way up to the 29th storey.

Though the lifts were automatic, they were operated by a team of women in starched uniforms decorated with bows, which added a sophisticated touch to the upscale building.

Spectacular staircase

The staircase to the second floor wows with exquisite cast-iron rails adorned with intricate detailing. If you look closely, you can make out the cupids that form part of the design. Given the stairs are unlikely to have been used all that often – they were installed to abide by fire regulations – their lavish decoration is all the more impressive.

Breathtaking details

The staircase to the upper floors is almost as grand, with its intricate wrought-iron rails, wood panelling and thick carpeting.

All in all, the building contained 250,000 square feet of office space, according to Leland Kent. The original 878 offices were all decked out in white oak with ceiling fans, Venetian blinds and office partitions made from plaster and opaque glass.

Sought-after office space

Cutting edge for its time, it's no wonder that a quarter of the office space was leased before the skyscraper was even completed.

Here's a corridor on one of the lower storeys of the building that appears to have retained its original features for the most part. Note the well-preserved wood panels, which look as though they'd be relatively straightforward to restore. Now, let's take a look inside one of the abandoned offices on this floor.

Prestige address

The Sterick Building struggled during the Great Depression, but during the 1940s and 1950s it was regarded as the most prestigious office address in Memphis.

An illustrious array of distinguished professionals operated from the structure, from top doctors and dentists to hotshot lawyers. As many as 10,000 people passed through the marble lobby on a daily basis and the building sent and received more mail than some small towns in the US, according to Leland Kent.

City within a city

This veritable city within a city catered exceptionally well to its elite tenants. Among the plethora of amenities was a barber shop situated on the fifth floor. A host of other businesses were also located on this level, including the Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Company.

Meanwhile, the fourth floor even once housed a radio station. WHHM, the city's fifth radio station, made its debut from the skyscraper in 1946. According to press at the time, the station's headquarters featured a reception area, two large control rooms, a newsroom and seven offices.

Vintage bathrooms

The building's bathrooms were just as swish as the offices and other facilities. This one was adorned in bold animal print wallpaper.

By 1951, every single office in the building was leased and over 2,000 employees were working out of the skyscraper. As the Sterick basked in its success, the cherry on top of the cake arrived in 1960, when a gourmet restaurant called the Regency Room opened on the top floor.

Office décor

Moving up the building, we arrive at the eighth floor. This was home to a variety of organisations including the National Oak Flooring Manufacturing Association.

As time went on, tenants adapted the original décor of the offices to their tastes, digressing from the original design. The fine oak parquet flooring in this space would've once been dazzling, but years of neglect and dust have dulled its shine.

Doctors' offices

The building featured a number of doctors' offices, including the surgery of a Doctor Philip Markle. This particular physician specialised in ear, nose and throat surgery, and was an official examiner for the Civil Aeronautics Authority – now the Federal Aviation Administration – conducting medical assessments for commercial pilots.

Prominent architect

Esteemed professionals who leased office space on the ninth floor included modernist architect Clarence H Fisher, who was a corporate member of the Memphis chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

His most notable work is the Frayser Community Center, now the Ed Rice Community Center in north Memphis, which was recently redeveloped.

The deterioration of downtown

Here's another view of the ninth-floor hallway, featuring what looks to be an old-fashioned drinking fountain.

During the early 1960s, downtown Memphis began to decline as businesses decamped to the suburbs. Following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr in 1968, the deterioration of the downtown area intensified and racial tensions in the city grew. Development refocused on residential areas and, one by one, landmark buildings in downtown began to close.

"Things just evaporated," Shelby County historian Jimmy Ogle told the The Commercial Appeal.

Urban blight and stiff competition

The Sterick Building was among the victims of this urban blight, and as tenants vacated the structure it became increasingly rundown as maintenance fell by the wayside.

Many of the structure's tenants were also being wooed away from the building by the lure of more modern skyscrapers such as 100 North Main, which had been erected in downtown Memphis, and featured a revolving rooftop restaurant.

At 430 feet, 100 North Main also stole the Sterick Building's title as the tallest building in Memphis upon its completion in 1965.

Shifting ownership

Over the years, the skyscraper has changed hands numerous times. It was sold for the first time in 1932, just three years after its completion, though ownership of the land was always kept separate. The structure changed owners again in 1945, 1952, 1965, 1973 and 1979.

In the meantime, its distinctive stone façade was painted over in bland white, much to the consternation of heritage lovers. Given the building's decline, it's ironic that Memphis Heritage used to have an office in the skyscraper – thought to have been this crumbling space.

Maintenance issues

Though the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in the late 1970s, by 1979 it was in dire shape.

A year later, the building's occupancy rate had fallen to below 40%. The once cutting-edge elevators had been shut down and the water supply had been interrupted, leaving the building's doctors and dentists unable to treat their patients.

Here's one of the old dentist offices situated on the 12th floor, complete with its vintage Ritter Robot dental unit.

Dentist's office

Dentist Dr Hugh Hyatt was among the building's most enduring residents, having run his practice from the landmark structure for over 50 years, according to Leland Kent.

Hyatt was said to be a friend of renowned playwright Tennessee Williams, who may very well have visited this office. The dentist was reportedly such a huge fan of the building that he would often tell patients his middle name was Sterick.

Secret Service outpost

Swathes of the building were also occupied by the federal government. The 12th floor reportedly housed US Marshalls, narcotics and customs agents, the district attorney, the Prohibition Administration, the Department of Agriculture and other government agencies, including the Secret Service, according to Leland Kent's research.

The Sterick Building's nomination form for the National Register of Historic Places also reveals that the US District Court once leased a space in the structure too.

Moving up the building's floors, this office with its vintage glass-brick feature wall is located on the 14th level.

Legal hub

Memphians looking to get lawyered up back in the day would have certainly been spoiled for choice in the Sterick Building. The skyscraper was replete with attorneys, including a trio that worked out of this spacious office on the 15th floor.

Fittingly, the fictional office of lawyer Reggie Love in the John Gresham thriller novel The Client was located in the building – and the structure was also included in the 1994 movie adaptation starring Susan Sarandon.

Hard times

In 1982, the building was repainted a pale yellow and the original green-tiled mansard roof was painted a copper hue, with a dark brown and maroon trim encircling the structure's windows.

But an exterior makeover wasn't enough to save the landmark. Tenants were leaving in their droves and in 1983 a lien was placed on the property. A year later, it was sold yet again to Sterick Tower Partners, a Tennessee limited partnership, which paid just under $4.5 million, which is around $13 million (£10m) today, according to Leland Kent.

Scrapped plans

By 1987, the property was effectively abandoned. Plans were afoot to remodel the structure and leases were left to expire, but the project came to nothing. In 1991, there were just two tenants remaining.

That same year, the building was put up for auction. The structure's ownership reverted to one of its former owners, Equitable Life Assurance. But by now, the landmark was in exceedingly rough shape.

Plummeting value

In 2006, the Memphis Center City Commission placed the Sterick Building on its list of Top Ten Center City Redevelopment Sites. A year before that, the property was appraised at a relatively paltry $419,200 (£329k).

For years, the complexity of the ownership arrangement as well as the vast scope and enormous cost of the required renovations stymied plans for the site's redevelopment.

Bright future

Finally, however, the historic skyscraper's future is looking bright. Back in March 2023, the Sterick Building was acquired by Constellation Properties, which is headed by Memphis developer Stuart Harris.

The ideal people for the job, the company won plaudits for its sensitive renovation of downtown's Medical Arts Building in 2018, which has been renamed the Commonwealth.

Game-changing deal

The developer pulled off the seemingly impossible by brokering a deal with Equitable Life and the Grosvenor Estate, the long-time owner of the land. Harris's firm now owns the building and land outright, resolving the ground lease issue that’s plagued the structure since its construction.

Harris is passionate about restoring the building and its gorgeous original features to their former glory. In fact, he's such a big fan of the landmark that he commissioned a Sterick-themed wedding cake for his nuptials back in 2006.

Full steam ahead

Harris plans to transform the building into a residential tower with up to 260 residences, though he's also open to including a boutique hotel, retail stores and restaurants.

The building itself is in great shape structurally according to Harris, but the interior is another story. One of the biggest challenges will be removing the asbestos that riddles the structure.

“A lot of the damage is superficial,” Harris told Memphis Magazine. “The building itself is made out of concrete and steel, with a composite limestone exterior. It’s a beautiful historic shell in pretty good condition... We’ll leave that intact as much as we can".

Reinstating the jewel of the Memphis skyline

The planning and financing stage is expected to take around 18 months, during which Harris and his team will work closely with the National Park Service and the State Historic Preservation office. He also plans to restore the painted façade to its original stone and will take advantage of federal historic tax credits to help bankroll the massive project.

If all goes to plan, the Sterick Building will be fully restored by the end of 2026 and will shine once again as the jewel of the Memphis skyline.