A French financier by the name of Jean-Baptiste Paulin Caperon owned 1400 acres in the Palo Alto foothills in the late 1900s. He assumed the name Peter Coutts upon moving to California in 1875. His sudden return to France for reasons unknown prompted him to sell these lands to his neighbor, Leland Stanford — yes, Stanford University. A unique architectural legacy remains from Paulin Caperon — a 50 foot red brick column (circa 1895) dubbed ‘Frenchman’s Tower’ which sits amidst the California oak trees and scrub grass on Old Page Mill Road. The tower’s second floor apparently held a water tank and the first floor was his private library, and yet, there is no evidence of a door for entry. The tower’s crown of crenels mimics those of a medieval battlement and the scant outline of a Gothic window further enlivens one’s imagination of a 15th century battle on the English moors.
Frenchman’s Roadside Tower © Yvonne Cornell, 2012
Frenchman’s Tower © Yvonne Cornell, 2012
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