The were planted along the road leading to the house where I grew up. They were mature, 40-60 feet tall, and covered in Spanish moss. They bloomed from top to bottom. Those trees have aged out over the last 50 years; few if any remain.

I thought they grew only to 12 to 15 feet.

We have a lot of crepe myrtles in the Carolinas. They are everywhere now as ornamentals in parking lots and such. Seem to be replacing those awful Bradford pears. Most varieties seem to max at 25 or 30 feet. A lot seems to depend on where they are located and how they are pruned. The ones that were so tall had been lightly pruned to prevent them from spreading out.

Speaking of pruning, there is a awful practice by some landscape firms to severely prune myrtles every year so that there is barely more than a stump remaining. Crepe myrtlicide.