|
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.〔〔〔 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.〔 Some dates go back over 100 years.〔 In 1970, the landowner bricked in the windows to protect the structure from vandals.〔 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.〔 == Architecture == 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. 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. 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. The tower, situated near Matadero Creek, was originally connected to one of a system of six underground tunnels used to provide subterranean water to his farm and on property lake. Workers had to remove tons of earth before reaching a sufficient underground water source.〔 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.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Frenchman's Tower」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|