Cabot Tower (St. John's) - Architectural Value

Architectural Value

Located at the highest point of Signal Hill, overlooking the city and the ocean, Cabot Tower is an example of late-Gothic Revival style. built of irregularly coursed red sandstone is composed of a two storey, 30 foot, square structure with a three storey, 50 foot octagonal tower that stands on the southeast corner of the building. The corners are buttressed at the first floor level and further emphasized through the use of heavier blocks of stone. On the main body of the building, at the top of the second storey level, is a line of repeating pattern like an exaggerated dentil row or inverted crenelations. The attached tower which houses the main entrance, is very plain with a double string course marking the divisions between second and third storeys and heavy corbel tables marking the eight corners of the turret at the flared upper level. The windows on both the corner turret and the body of the tower proper are rectangular and set under heavy stone lintels. Its architect, William Howe Greene was a prominent St. John's architect and an associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects.