They're tall, windowless, completely unremarkable and and they're in nearly every city across America. They're built to be passed by you completely unnoticed. So what exactly are these ominous windowless buildings?

AT&T maintains one of these buildings at 128 West Lovell Street in Kalamazoo. While they are likely nothing more than telecommunication switching sites and hubs, the company's reluctance to talk about them adds to their mystery.

In December 2016, the South Bend Tribute attempted to learn a bit about a windowless AT&T Buildng that looms of that city's skyline. In an article titled "A skyline mystery in South Bend" reporter Jeff Parrott found during his investigation,

Initially I envisioned someone from AT&T giving a Tribune photographer and me a tour of the building at 301 and 307 S. Main St. But that idea was quickly quashed by Tamara Rader, AT&T media relations for Indiana.

“Our building houses some administrative offices and various electronic equipment,” Rader replied via email. “Unfortunately we’re unable to do a tour at this time.”

That was on Nov. 29. On Dec. 6 I sent Rader another email, telling her that my editors, who said they had shared my long-held curiosity, still wanted a story. If no tour, could I at least interview someone?

“Don’t have anything further to provide for this,” Rader wrote.

I reached out to a local governmental official who said he wasn’t sure what’s in the building, “and out of respect for their security concerns, we never ask.” Was it OK for me to quote him saying that? “No.”

So the company won't say and nor will city officials if they even know. So if it's nothing more than boring switches, why not allow a newspaper reporter a look to sate his curiosity?

The Tribune article was shared on reddit and several users shared what they know about these windowless, secret buildings.

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