Towers

This chapter examines the belvedere. Here, the notion of the view and its attendant power dynamics in the building type of the belvedere, and prospect towers generally, are subjects largely unexplored by architectural historians of nineteenth-century America. These ornamental structures appeared in England in eighteenth-century landscape gardens. Settings for prospect towers in the United States included gardens, parks, rural cemeteries, and tourist attractions: in other words, anywhere an elevated view was desirable. In general, the architectural styles of belvederes ranged from the neoclassical to the more exotic Gothic and Chinese, and took the form of many different building types, including lighthouses, pagodas, obelisks, and castellated towers. What they shared in common, however, was the inherent power embodied in looking down from on high.