I had been meaning to get to this one for a number of years, but it was usually out of the way. Since we were touring a mansion in Newport, I finally had a chance to get to the “Viking Tower” in Touro Park. Nobody seems to be clearly sure of its age or who built it. There are 2 major sides to the theory of this structure’s origin – some people think it’s the remains of some sort of mill from the 16-1700’s, while others feel it was built much earlier – around 1000 – by Vikings.
The tower, windmill, or whatever it was sits in the middle of the park, surrounded by a small fence. There are lights at its base, and a statue of William Ellery Channing – a prominent Unitarian from the 1800’s – is nearby.
I found a 360-panoramic of Touro Park. Kinda trippy.
…wow, ‘trippy’ isn’t in my spellchecker.
What was great about it is that the people who run the park didn’t even bother putting up any signs. They just have this big tower in the middle of their park. “Hey look at THIS. We don’t know what it is either.” The only thing I could add is that the holes to hold the floor beams are ABOVE those large arches. If it was a mill, wouldn’t the walls go all the way to the ground? Maybe not, I don’t know. It would make sense as some kind of defensive tower because if the floor was THAT high up, your enemy would not be able to easily reach you. Just put a ladder in the floor that you could pull up in case of an attack. Who is to say it wasn’t from after the vikings came, though? Some kind of defensive tower is where my suspicions lie, but I’d need further proof to believe the Viking story.