History
Begun in 1898, to commemorate both Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and the 400th anniversary of John Cabot's (Giovanni Caboto) voyage to the New World, Cabot Tower was completed in 1900 and has been a part of a number of historic events. Although now one of the most recognizable symbols of St. John's and Newfoundland and Labrador, its construction was not well supported in the town. Most of St. John's burned to the ground in 1892 and the banks in Newfoundland crashed in 1894. When Judge D.W. Prowse, a prominent local man, suggested building Cabot Tower, one person said in a local paper that "it's like putting a silk hat on the head of a man who can't afford to buy a pair of boots." Another project, the Victoria Wing of the local hospital, received much more public support.
The building was used primarily for flag signalling. The British military first used Signal Hill, originally known as the Lookout, for this purpose in around 1704. There was a mast at the highest point on the hill, and it would be the job of a signalman to keep an eye out for ships approaching the city. When one was spotted he would indicate by flag what type of ship it was, what country it was from and fire off a peterra so that the men below in the town would know to look towards the hill. Then they would fire the same type of cannon in response. By the end of the 18th century, a blockhouse had been constructed on the site. By the 19th century, the signalling was done mostly for the various merchants who operated out of St. John's. Cabot Tower was the last in a line of signalling blockhouses built on Signal Hill, it was used for flag signalling until 1960.
On December 12, 1901, it stood witness to possibly the most important accomplishment in modern communications - the reception of the first wireless transatlantic signal by Guglielmo Marconi from his Poldhu Wireless Station, in Cornwall, England. A Marconi Wireless Station operated on the second floor of Cabot Tower for many years afterward. In fact, in 1920 one of the first wireless transatlantic transmissions of the human voice was made there. Men at the wireless station were able to talk with the steamship Victoria which was steaming out of England. The station operated until around 1960. The communications legacy of Cabot Tower is kept alive today by the Society of Newfoundland Radio Amateurs (or SONRA) who operate a ham radio station on the second floor.
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