In 1942, the Broadway Town Council erected an observation tower atop a hill overlooking Rt. 259 just off Broadway Ave. on a platform about 20 feet above the ground. The U.S. Army selected the site and the State Aircraft Warning Service approved it as part of the east coast air patrol, with a mission to spot unidentified aircraft that might have penetrated the air defense system. Mrs. John Homan Kline, Bernice Moyers Kline, served as chief observer, assisted by Mrs. E.W. Roller, Mr. J.E. Williams, Miss Lennis Moyers, Mr. J. Frank Hillyard, and Mrs. Herman L. Hollar, while local volunteers, including men, women, and high school students, manned the tower. Volunteer inscriptions still visible on the window sills include names and dates from 1942 and 1943. After World War II, Charles D. Lantz moved the tower in 1954 to his home on Linville Avenue in Broadway, where it became a playhouse for his children, and in later years it also served the children and grandchildren of Dan and Ellen Lantz Whitmore. In August 2013, the Whitmore family restored the tower inside and out to its original appearance and donated it to the Plains District Museum, and the furnishings preserved by the Lantz family are original to the tower.