In their time the two were "widely regarded as the best paper mill architects in the world", attributed to the fact that the brothers employed both civil and mechanical engineering and made thorough study of sites to employ natural power in their architectural plans.
Upon their deaths, the two brothers were praised like royalty, with Ashley Tower, described in one trade journal as "the Nestor of paper and pulp mill engineering" and David Tower touted by William Randolph Hearst's national news service as "the Paper King".

During the firm's time under the handle "D. H. & A. B. Tower", the two designed at least 100 or so mills, and this does not include those which had been designed and constructed by either brother individually before or after their dissolution, nor does this include the many works of their pupils, some of whom had served as A.B. Tower's junior partners in the years after 1892.

One entry for their office in 1890 described their office as employing 12-15 staff, whereas other accounts describe as many as 35, including stenographers, draughtsmen and civil engineers.
The latter proved to become as much a legacy of the firm as their dozens of mills, as Joseph Wallace later described- "a number of the noteworth pulp and paper mills erected in America have been entrusted to 'Tower' graduates."

Among these was George F. Hardy, who worked with the brothers starting in 1888, and become the junior partner of the firm a year after David's departure, from 1893 to 1896.
Hardy would go on to become International Paper's first chief engineer, overseeing the logistics and technical work of operating its 17 mills when it first merged in 1898 He would ultimately leave this post in 1901, only to acquire the Towers' business in its last iteration in New York City, including a number of assets Ashley Tower left behind following his sudden death.
Rechristened as George F. Hardy & Son, he would continue to build upon the legacy of his former employers, designing dozens of paper mills internationally for several more decades.
So prominent became his work that he would later be described in a 1908 Congressional hearing on the industry as "the famous paper and pulp mill architect of the East".

Another noteworthy pupil of the brothers was Hardy S. Ferguson, who went on to build the Great Northern Paper Company's mills.
The company's facilities, which remained operational into the 21st century, were his first independent project in 1899.
He became another mill engineer subsequently who, in his own right, would influence mill engineering on an international scale as, at the time of its construction, the Great Northern Paper Mill was the world's largest.

Two alumni of the firm would go on to work as chief engineers of the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company, including Arthur W. French, who subsequently became a professor of engineering at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and Daniel P. Jones, who was tasked with not only its management but the expansion of its facilities.

Joseph Wallace, the biographer and evangelist of the brothers' work long after their deaths, joined the firm in 1894, soon after David's retirement.
He became Ashley Tower's last junior partner in 1897, leaving shortly before Tower's death, and would go on to develop his own successful millwright business, one of his own major accomplishments being the design of hydraulic plants for Kimberly Clark.
In their time the two were "widely regarded as the best paper mill architects in the world", attributed to the fact that the brothers employed both civil and mechanical engineering and made thorough study of sites to employ natural power in their architectural plans. Upon their deaths, the two brothers were praised like royalty, with Ashley Tower, described in one trade journal as "the Nestor of paper and pulp mill engineering" and David Tower touted by William Randolph Hearst's national news service as "the Paper King".
During the firm's time under the handle "D. H. & A. B. Tower", the two designed at least 100 or so mills, and this does not include those which had been designed and constructed by either brother individually before or after their dissolution, nor does this include the many works of their pupils, some of whom had served as A.B. Tower's junior partners in the years after 1892.
One entry for their office in 1890 described their office as employing 12-15 staff, whereas other accounts describe as many as 35, including stenographers, draughtsmen and civil engineers. The latter proved to become as much a legacy of the firm as their dozens of mills, as Joseph Wallace later described- "a number of the noteworth pulp and paper mills erected in America have been entrusted to 'Tower' graduates."
Among these was George F. Hardy, who worked with the brothers starting in 1888, and become the junior partner of the firm a year after David's departure, from 1893 to 1896. Hardy would go on to become International Paper's first chief engineer, overseeing the logistics and technical work of operating its 17 mills when it first merged in 1898 He would ultimately leave this post in 1901, only to acquire the Towers' business in its last iteration in New York City, including a number of assets Ashley Tower left behind following his sudden death. Rechristened as George F. Hardy & Son, he would continue to build upon the legacy of his former employers, designing dozens of paper mills internationally for several more decades. So prominent became his work that he would later be described in a 1908 Congressional hearing on the industry as "the famous paper and pulp mill architect of the East".
Another noteworthy pupil of the brothers was Hardy S. Ferguson, who went on to build the Great Northern Paper Company's mills. The company's facilities, which remained operational into the 21st century, were his first independent project in 1899. He became another mill engineer subsequently who, in his own right, would influence mill engineering on an international scale as, at the time of its construction, the Great Northern Paper Mill was the world's largest.
Two alumni of the firm would go on to work as chief engineers of the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company, including Arthur W. French, who subsequently became a professor of engineering at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and Daniel P. Jones, who was tasked with not only its management but the expansion of its facilities.
Joseph Wallace, the biographer and evangelist of the brothers' work long after their deaths, joined the firm in 1894, soon after David's retirement. He became Ashley Tower's last junior partner in 1897, leaving shortly before Tower's death, and would go on to develop his own successful millwright business, one of his own major accomplishments being the design of hydraulic plants for Kimberly Clark.
D. H. & A. B. Tower