Newport Tower
The Newport Tower is roughly a 28 x 24 foot circular tower, sitting upon eight arched pillars. The name Newport Tower comes from the city of Newport, Rhode Island, where the tower is located. Records indicate that the tower was once used as a windmill[1], however there is some credible debate on whether or not the tower was built before its use as a mill. Although no one is certainly sure where the tower came from or who built it, most credible Archaeologists trace it back to the 17th century. On the other hand, some alternative history and Pseudo-Archaeological narratives present the largely unsupported idea that perhaps the tower was built by Vikings, Welsh, Dutch, or even the Templar Knights.
History of The Tower
The records of the Newport Tower can be traced back to 1677 at the earliest, in a deed for a cemetery in which the tower was referenced as "the stone mill"; likewise, in the same year, Governor Benedict Arnold referred to the tower as "[his] stone built windmill" [2] It would make sense for Governor Arnold to construct a Windmill around that time period considering the first and only Windmill on Rhode Island, built under Governor Eaton, had been destroyed by a storm in August, 1675[2], just 8 months prior to Governor Arnold's reference to the mill. However, there is no record of the construction of the tower, or when it was built, which is extremely odd considering how complete colonial construction records are for Rhode Island.[2]
- ↑ Hertz, Johannes (1997) "Round Church or Windmill? New light on the Newport Tower," Newport History: Vol. 68 : Iss. 235 , Article 2. Available at: https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/newporthistory/vol68/iss235/2
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Pohl, Frederick J. “Was the Newport Tower Standing in 1632?” The New England Quarterly, vol. 18, no. 4, New England Quarterly, Inc., 1945, pp. 501–06, https://doi.org/10.2307/361066.