The story behind a 153-foot-tall historic tower in Scituate

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Visitors can view the full moon from above this fall.

Visitors to Scituate can climb a 153-foot tower built in the name of love over a century ago and gaze up at the full moon.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1902, the Lawson Tower looks like something out of a Rapunzel story, but was actually businessman Thomas W. Lawson’s response to an ugly water tank that his beloved wife didn’t like near their new home.

“It’s the only one of its kind in the world,” said Robert Chessia, acting president and chairman of the board of trustees of the Scituate Historical Society, which maintains the tower.

The City of Scituate purchased the tower from Lawson in 1923, and the tank was drained in 1988 when the Scituate Water Company discontinued its use.

Visitors who climb the 123 steps to the top will be rewarded with a bird’s-eye view of Scituate, including Scituate Light, as well as Boston, the North River and beyond, he said.

“If you know where to look, you can just about see the Provincetown tower with the naked eye,” he said, referring to the Pilgrim Monument.

Lawson, a Charlestown native, was one of the wealthiest people in America at the turn of the century, Chessia said, and often rented summer homes on the South Shore. One day, Lawson and his wife, Jeannie, were taking a carriage ride through Scituate.

“His wife said, ‘What a beautiful place for a farm.’ So he immediately went out and bought 350 acres of land and built this property for them,” Chessia said.

The Lawsons eventually owned nearly 1,000 acres of land and built an elaborate summer home called Dreamwold.

“He had a 240-meter-long stable for his racehorses,” Chessia said. “He once had about 200 horses, 200 dogs – his favorite dogs were bulldogs – and 3,000 birds, sheep, cows, a bear and a monkey.”

As her home took shape, Jeannie didn’t like one thing: the steel water tank nearby.

“She told her husband to do something about it,” Chessia said.

So Lawson sent his architect to Europe to research designs and was inspired by a 15th-century watchtower on the Rhine. Lawson got permission to enclose the water tank and paid $60,000 to build the tower, Chessia said. The builder was Irish immigrant Charles Logue, who also built Boston’s famous Fenway Park.

Lawson also added something special to the tower – bells.

“He put ten bells up there that play music, that strike the hour, or that ring the bells in the morning and evening,” Chessia said. “All of this to make (his wife) happy.”

The bells, commissioned from the Meneely Bell Company in Troy, NY, weigh between 300 and 3,000 pounds and are played from a console room on the ground floor, according to the company. In 2021, Irish Ambassador Daniel Mulhall played the bells when he visited the coastal town. Scituate was named the most Irish town in America and Lawson Tower is part of the South Shore Irish Heritage Trail.

Jeannie was in poor health and died in 1906, just four years after the tower was built, Chessia said, and the heartbroken Lawson never remarried. The couple had six children.

Lawson had a “long and at times stormy career,” according to the society. He was the author of the 1906 book “Frenzied Finance: The Crime of Amalgamated” and was notorious for his stock manipulation. He died in 1925 “almost penniless” and his assets were sold to pay off his debts, according to the society.

The public can enter the tower five times a year during scheduled open houses for $3 per person. The last open house of the year is September 15.

Visitors can also visit the tower during Trips to the Top to view the full moon. The remaining dates for this special event are September 19, October 17, November 16 and December 15, and the cost to attend is $10. Members of the Scituate Historical Society will tell the story of the tower, while members of the South Shore Astronomical Society will offer telescopes for observation. Registration is required.

To hear the tower’s bells, visitors can still attend two free concerts by the Lenae Badger Society Bell, which will take place this year at the base of the tower on October 27 and December 22.