The Jenny Lind Tower is a stone tower located in North Truro, Massachusetts. It is named after the 19th-century opera singer Jenny Lind, who is rumored to have climbed the tower when it was located in Boston to prevent a riot among people who were unable to attend her concert. [1] It is located roughly between the Highland Light lighthouse and North Truro Air Force Station. It is seventy feet tall.
The tower, resembling a castle's battlement, was once part of the original circa 1845 Fitchburg Railroad depot in Boston; later (1900-1927) owned by the Boston and Maine Railroad which took over the Fitchburg in 1900. [2] [3] In 1850, the opera singer Jenny Lind sang in the auditorium above the station. The concert was oversold and many people were unable to get in. Soon after, she had to cut her performance short after fans began to crash the gates. [1] [4] P. T. Barnum was the publicist for Lind and it is possible that he created the legend behind the name. [5]
In 1927, the station was being torn down. The lawyer Henry M. Aldrich, connected with the railroad, had the tower dismantled and transported to land in North Truro, Massachusetts of which he bought one hundred acres from a local named Mort Small. Erection of the tower took more than two months and involved the labor of five men. He also erected five cottages on the land, but left no reasoning for the erection of the tower. [1]
The Cape Cod National Seashore obtained the deed for the tower in 1961; it was donated by Aldrich's daughter-in-law. [5] There are no roads to the tower, although it is fairly close to a road that goes to a Federal Aviation Administration radar facility on land that is part of the old North Truro Air Force Station. [4]
A common myth surrounding the naming of the tower is that on the night of her performance, Jenny Lind climbed the tower and sang to the public. While this has not been proven false, newspaper reports of the time do not mention any sort of performance by her to the public below. It is also rumored that Henry Aldrich was an admirer of her, hence the reason that he moved the tower to his land despite not being born for another 17 years. In A Pilgrim Returns to Cape Cod (1946), the historian Edward Rowe Snow made the myth more attractive by stating, "There are those who like to believe that because an Aldrich family member was captivated by Jenny's voice, this caused them to decide to move the tower to their land in Truro, Massachusetts." He went on to undermine the myth by stating that Aldrich's son later told him that Lind's performance did not motivate his father to move the tower to the Cape. It is because of this myth that the legend of the tower lives on in local lore. [1]
Local stories passed down for 300 years say that the ghost of Goody Hallett - known as "the Witch of Wellfleet", "the Sea Witch of Eastham", and "the Red Heeled Witch", and was the lover of Samuel Bellamy, captain of the pirate ship Whydah Gally - haunts the woods of Truro and Wellfleet in central Cape Cod. Her banshee screams can be heard at sunset from the cliffs of Wellfleet as she curses the passing ships to cause them to wreck there as her lover Sam Bellamy did in 1717. Legends say that when Goody Hallett begins her haunting, the ghost of Jenny Lind once again ascends the tower to sing, and the beauty of her nightingale song repels Goody and frightens her away. [6]
Cape Cod is a geographic cape extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The name Cape Cod, coined in 1602 by Bartholomew Gosnold, is the ninth oldest English place-name in the U.S.
The Cape Cod National Seashore (CCNS), created on August 7, 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, encompasses 43,607 acres on Cape Cod, in Massachusetts. It includes ponds, woods and beachfront of the Atlantic coastal pine barrens ecoregion. The CCNS includes nearly 40 miles (64 km) of seashore along the Atlantic-facing eastern shore of Cape Cod, in the towns of Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, Eastham, Orleans and Chatham. It is administered by the National Park Service.
Wellfleet is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, and is located halfway between the "tip" and "elbow" of Cape Cod. The town had a population of 3,566 at the 2020 census, which swells nearly sixfold during the summer. A total of 70% of the town's land area is under protection, and nearly half of it is part of the Cape Cod National Seashore. Wellfleet is famous for its oysters, which are celebrated in the annual October Wellfleet OysterFest.
Barnstable County is a county located in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. At the 2020 census, the population was 228,996. Its shire town is Barnstable. The county consists of Cape Cod and associated islands.
Eastham is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, Barnstable County being coextensive with Cape Cod. The population was 5,752 at the 2020 census.
Truro is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, comprising two villages: Truro and North Truro. Located slightly more than 100 miles (160 km) by road from Boston, it is a summer vacation community just south of the northern tip of Cape Cod, in an area known as the "Outer Cape". English colonists named it after Truro in Cornwall, United Kingdom.
Captain Samuel Bellamy, later known as "Black Sam" Bellamy, was an English pirate who operated in the early 18th century. He is best known as the wealthiest pirate in recorded history, and one of the faces of the Golden Age of Piracy. Though his known career as a pirate captain lasted little more than a year, he and his crew captured at least 53 ships. Called "Black Sam" in Cape Cod folklore because he eschewed the fashionable powdered wig in favor of tying back his long black hair with a simple band, Bellamy became known for his mercy and generosity toward those he captured on his raids. This reputation earned him another nickname, the "Prince of Pirates". He likened himself to Robin Hood, with his crew calling themselves "Robin Hood's Men".
Whydah Gally was a fully rigged galley ship that was originally built as a passenger, cargo, and slave ship. On the return leg of her maiden voyage of the triangle trade, Whydah Gally was captured by the pirate Captain Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy, beginning a new role in the Golden Age of Piracy.
Massachusetts Route 6A is the state road for two sections formerly known as U.S. Route 6 (US 6) on Cape Cod. Most of Route 6A is also known as the Old King's Highway. Combining the 2 major sections, the highway is approximately 62 miles (100 km) long.
Billingsgate Island, also sometimes known as Bellingsgate Island, was an island off Cape Cod in Massachusetts in the United States. Originally settled as a fishing and whaling community as part of the town of Eastham, Massachusetts, Billingsgate Island was for a long time the site of a lighthouse used as a navigational aid in Cape Cod Bay. Local historians sometimes call it the Atlantis of Cape Cod.
The Cape Cod Rail Trail (CCRT) is a 25.5-mile (41.0 km) paved rail trail located on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. The trail route passes through the towns of Yarmouth, Dennis, Harwich, Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, and Wellfleet. It connects to the 6-plus mile (10 km) Old Colony Rail Trail leading to Chatham, the 2 mile Yarmouth multi-use trail, and 8 miles (13 km) of trails within Nickerson State Park. Short side trips on roads lead to national seashore beaches including Coast Guard Beach at the end of the Nauset Bike Trail in Cape Cod National Seashore. The trail is part of the Claire Saltonstall Bikeway.
Cape Cod Regional Technical High School, also known as Cape Tech, Cape Cod Tech, Lower Cape Tech, and sometimes abbreviated as CCT, is a public vocational and technical high school located in Harwich, Massachusetts, United States.
North Truro Air Force Station (AFS) is a closed United States Air Force General Surveillance Radar station. It is located 2.2 mi (3.5 km) east of North Truro, Massachusetts.
Barnstable's Old Gaol is a historic colonial jail in Barnstable, Massachusetts. Built c.1690, it is the oldest wooden jail in the United States of America.
The Three Sisters of Nauset are a trio of historic lighthouses off Cable Road in Eastham, Massachusetts. The original three brick towers fell into the sea due to erosion in 1890 and were replaced with wooden towers on brick foundations in 1892. The Sisters were decommissioned in 1911 but one of them, the Beacon, was moved back from the shoreline and attached to the keeper's house. It continued to operate but was replaced by a new steel tower, the Nauset Light, in 1923.
Cyprian Southack was an English cartographer and colonial naval commander. He commanded the Province Galley, Massachusetts' one-ship navy (1696–1711) and commanded the first navy ship of Nova Scotia, the ship William Augustus (1721–23).
The Cape Libraries Automated Materials Sharing (CLAMS) library network is a non-profit consortium of thirty-five member libraries and thirty-eight locations throughout Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket. Since it was founded in 1991, the network has registered over 255,000 cardholders. It completes over 3.5 million transactions per year. The number of items available has grown from 568,000 in 1991 to over 1.6 million in 2014. Deliveries of materials between member libraries and other library networks in Massachusetts through an interlibrary loan program are made by the Massachusetts Library System located in Waltham . The network uses Sierra integrated library system (ILS) for staff function workflows: acquisitions, cataloging, circulation, ILL, and serials as well as for their patron's Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC). The libraries provide access to reference databases, digital libraries, access to free music online, museum passes, genealogy, workshops, and other free services that vary from each location.
Elizabeth Reynard (1897–1962) was an English professor at Barnard College. She served in the military, helping to establish the WAVES and was the first woman to be appointed lieutenant in the United States Navy Reserve.
Massachusetts House of Representatives' 4th Barnstable district in the United States is one of 160 legislative districts included in the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court. It covers part of Barnstable County. Democrat Sarah Peake of Provincetown has represented the district since 2007.
Massachusetts Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities, & Other Offbeat Stuff.
Coordinates: 42°2′4.27″N70°3′18.72″W / 42.0345194°N 70.0552000°W