Frenchman's Tower | |
---|---|
General information | |
Status | Completed |
Type | Water tower |
Architectural style | Gothic Revival |
Location | San Francisco peninsula |
Address | 2065 Old Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, California |
Town or city | Palo Alto |
Country | United States |
Coordinates | 37°23′46″N122°09′43″W / 37.396132°N 122.161895°W |
Elevation | 200 ft (61 m) |
Completed | 1875 |
Owner | Stanford University |
Height | 32 ft (9.8 m) |
Dimensions | |
Diameter | 15 ft (4.6 m) |
Technical details | |
Structural system | Brick Masonry |
Floor count | 2 |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Paulin Caperon (aka Peter Coutts) |
Designations | California Point of Historical Interest |
Frenchman's Tower is a two-story red brick structure located in Santa Clara County, California, that resembles a medieval fortification. Built in 1875, the structure was listed as a California Point of Historical Interest in 1969. [1] [2] [3]
The structure was built under the direction of land owner Paulin Caperon, a native of France who had assumed the name Peter Coutts when he moved to Mayfield, California in 1875. Coutts returned to France in 1882 without letting his California neighbors know what happened to him and ordered a bank to liquidate his Mayfield property.
Since then trespassers have carved names or initials into almost every brick of the tower within their reach. [4] Some dates go back over 100 years. [5] In 1970, the landowner bricked in the windows to protect the structure from vandals. [5] Frenchman's Tower stands on Old Page Mill Road, midway between Foothill Expressway and Interstate 280, in Santa Clara County, California, within a strip of land within the borders of Palo Alto on land now owned by Stanford University. [6]
Frenchman's Tower was built in 1875 and has miniature crenels along the top and Gothic windows, giving it a style similar to Medieval fortifications built hundreds of years earlier, not unlike Chindia Tower built between the 15th and 19th century. [ citation needed ] In the Middle Ages, crenels were used to shield archers defending the structure.
The second floor held a water tank, while the first floor was used as a library[ citation needed ]. The original owner, Paulin Caperon, spent many hours in his library reading and studying. The building never had any doors, requiring entry through a window[ why? ]
The tower, situated near Matadero Creek, was originally connected to one of six tunnels used to provide subterranean water to his farm and to his lake. Workers had to remove tons of earth before reaching a sufficient underground water source. [6] Bricks for the tower were made by Albert Bowman and Company from a clay deposit discovered in Mountain View in the same year that the tower was constructed. [7]
Over the years, many different ideas and stories regarding Paulin Caperon's tower and tunnels have been told. Caperon, who also went by the alias Peter Coutts, is said to have "enjoyed mystifying his neighbors" and often helped perpetuate these stories by neither denying nor confirming the fanciful tales. These include the construction of tunnels and a fortified tower to "withstand a siege by his enemies" and harboring the French Empress, neither of which were true. [3]
Popular news media of today sometimes casts the tower as an unsolved mystery.
Some articles show the writer's curiosity about the tower.
Jean-Baptiste Paulin Caperon was born of wealthy parents near Bordeaux France in 1822 and died in Bordeaux, France, in September 1889 at the age of sixty-seven. [3]
Paulin Caperon was the son of one of Napoleon's officers. He lost both parents when he was only 26 years old. He "openly criticized Napoleon III policies and opposed the Franco-Prussian War. [11] " He founded a private bank, which he sold in 1873. Because of problems in France, he left France for Brussels, Belgium, and then went to New Orleans using identity papers of his deceased cousin Peter Coutts. He traveled to San Francisco and then to the township of Mayfield. [3] Paulin Caperon continued using the name Peter Coutts when he arrived in Mayfield (present day Palo Alto).
In 1875 he bought 1,400 acres (4.7 km2) of Rancho Rincon de San Francisquito from Jeremiah Clarke for $90,000. [13] Caperon had a heart ailment, and his wife was an invalid. He felt concerned that he and his wife might both die, and his children might have difficulty [11] inheriting his estate, so he took title to the land in the name of his children's governess Eugene Cloyensen.
Caperon developed the land into a thriving stock farm and eventually directed the construction of a tower to distribute water. He seemed friendly but would not discuss his past. [6] When local residents discovered that Peter Coutts (Paulin Caperon) had actually purchased the land in the name of his children's governess, the townspeople grew suspicious,[ citation needed ] made speculations, and spread rumors about the intended purpose of the tower. [6] In 1882, only eight years after his arrival, Paulin Caperon suddenly returned to his native France and sold the land [14] for the sum of $140,000 to Leland Stanford, who founded Stanford University in 1891. [15]
Paulin Caperon eventually reacquired legal title to valuable property he had owned in France. "Using his true identity, Caperon and his family returned to Paris in May 1883, [11] " and he spent the rest of his life in France. [3]
The San Francisco Peninsula is a peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area that separates San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. On its northern tip is the City and County of San Francisco. Its southern base is Mountain View, in Santa Clara County, south of Palo Alto and north of Sunnyvale and Los Altos. Most of the Peninsula is occupied by San Mateo County, between San Francisco and Santa Clara counties, and including the cities and towns of Atherton, Belmont, Brisbane, Burlingame, Colma, Daly City, East Palo Alto, El Granada, Foster City, Hillsborough, Half Moon Bay, La Honda, Loma Mar, Los Altos, Menlo Park, Millbrae, Pacifica, Palo Alto, Pescadero, Portola Valley, Redwood City, San Bruno, San Carlos, San Mateo, South San Francisco, and Woodside.
Palo Alto is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto.
El Palo Alto is a coast redwood located on the banks of the San Francisquito Creek in Palo Alto, California, a city in the San Francisco Bay Area. The namesake of the city and a historical landmark, El Palo Alto is 1082–1083 years old and stands 110 feet (34 m) tall.
Juana Briones de Miranda was a Californio ranchera, medical practitioner, and merchant, often remembered as the "Founding Mother of San Francisco", for her noted involvement in the early development of the city of San Francisco. Later in her life, she also played an important role in developing modern Palo Alto.
Palo Alto Airport is a general aviation airport in the city of Palo Alto in Santa Clara County, California, United States, near the south end of San Francisco Bay on the western shore.
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Birge Malcolm Clark was an American architect, called “Palo Alto's best-loved architect” by the Palo Alto Weekly; he worked largely in the Spanish Colonial Revival style.
San Francisquito Creek is a creek that flows into southwest San Francisco Bay in California, United States. Historically it was called the Arroyo de San Francisco by Juan Bautista de Anza in 1776. San Francisquito Creek courses through the towns of Portola Valley and Woodside, as well as the cities of Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and East Palo Alto. The creek and its Los Trancos Creek tributary define the boundary between San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.
Palo Alto station is an intermodal transit center in Palo Alto, California. It is served by Caltrain regional rail service, SamTrans and Santa Clara VTA local bus service, Dumbarton Express regional bus service, the Stanford University Marguerite Shuttle, and several local shuttle services. Palo Alto is the second-busiest Caltrain station after San Francisco, averaging 7,764 weekday boardings by a 2018 count. The Caltrain station has two side platforms serving the two tracks of the Peninsula Subdivision and a nearby bus transfer plaza.
The Mayfield Brewery also known as the Mayfield Railroad Brewery was a brewery that operated in Mayfield, California, for over 50 years, between 1868 and 1920. The brewery was located at what is now the corner of California Avenue and Birch Street in Palo Alto, California. It produced steam beer and sold it in kegs to local saloons. The brewery was shut down by Prohibition.
Santa Clara County, California, is one of California's original counties, with prior habitation dating from prehistory to the Alta California period.
Rancho Rincon de San Francisquito was a 8,418-acre (34.07 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Clara County, California given in 1841 by Governor Juan Alvarado to José Peña. The name means "corner or bend of the San Francisquito" referring to San Francisquito Creek. The grant extended along Matadero Creek to the hills and included the southern part of present-day Palo Alto and the southern part of the Stanford University campus.
Adobe Creek, historically San Antonio Creek, is a 14.2-mile-long (22.9 km) northward-flowing stream originating on Black Mountain in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It courses through the cities of Los Altos Hills, Los Altos, and Palo Alto on its way to the Palo Alto Flood Basin and thence to southwestern San Francisco Bay in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Historically, Adobe Creek was a perennial stream and hosted runs of steelhead trout entering from the Bay, but these salmonids are now blocked by numerous flood control structures, including a tidal gate at the creek's mouth and a long concretized rectangular channel culminating in an impassable drop structure at El Camino Real. The co-founders of Adobe Systems both lived on Adobe Creek.
Matadero Creek is a stream originating in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The creek flows in a northeasterly direction for 8 miles (13 km) until it enters the Palo Alto Flood Basin, where it joins Adobe Creek in the Palo Alto Baylands at the north end of the Mayfield Slough, just before its culmination in southwest San Francisco Bay. Matadero Creek begins in the city of Los Altos Hills, then traverses the Stanford University lands and Palo Alto.
Barron Creek is a 5.8-mile-long (9.3 km) northward-flowing stream originating in the lower foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Los Altos Hills in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It courses northerly through the cities of Los Altos Hills and Palo Alto, before joining Adobe Creek just south of U.S. Highway 101. As Adobe Creek, its waters continue northwards to southwest San Francisco Bay after crossing under Highway 101 and traversing the Palo Alto Flood Basin.
Sarah Wallis, also known as Sarah Armstrong Montgomery Green Wallis (1825–1905) was an early Anglophone settler in California and first President of the California Woman Suffrage Educational Association.
Palo Alto Stock Farm Horse Barn, also known as Stanford Red Barn or Stanford Stables, is located at present-day address 100 Electioneer Road in Stanford, California. This barn was established c.1878-1880 and is an example of Victorian-era Stick-Eastlake style architecture, though the architect is unknown. Palo Alto Stock Farm Horse Barn has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1985. There are only two original buildings left from the Palo Alto Stock Farm: the red barn and the brick stable.
Arthur Bridgman Clark (1866–1948) an American architect, printmaker, author, and professor, as well as the first mayor of Mayfield, California (1855–1925), and first head of Art and Architecture Department at Stanford University. He taught classes at Stanford University from 1893 until 1931.
Mayfield was a historic town in Santa Clara County, California. It was one of the oldest towns, predating the establishment of nearby Palo Alto and Stanford University. In 1853, prior to its becoming a town, Elisha Oscar Crosby acquired a 250 acres (1.0 km2) parcel of land, which was named Mayfield Farm. This property later changed hands on September 23, 1856, when it was transferred to Sarah Wallis to settle a debt Crosby owed her. The name "Mayfield" subsequently became associated with the community nearby. The historical significance of Mayfield is now marked by California Historical Landmark #969, which designates the location of Wallis's first residence, the Mayfield Farm.
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