Snapshot: Earles Court Water Tower

Photograph from the Detroit Publishing Company Collection in the Library of Congress

Once upon a time, a griffin guarded an ivy-covered tower in the faraway land of — Narragansett? This historical photograph from the Library of Congress shows the Earles Court Water Tower, a late nineteenth-century fixture in the burgeoning resort village of Narragansett Pier. In 1886, Edward Earle, a wealthy New York lawyer, commissioned four homes off Ocean Road to serve the growing summer population. A multistory water tower was built as part of the project. Not to be outdone by the opulent mansions going up across the bay, Earle had it constructed in the style of a medieval tower, complete with a wooden griffin to guard against attack. Today, the tower’s stone base still stands in the Earlscourt Historic District as a reminder of the neighborhood’s fairy-tale beginnings. “When you show it to people, they really don’t even believe it. They think it’s an abstract drawing,” says Keith Lescarbeau, chairman of the Narragansett Historic District Commission. About a decade ago, resident Sallie Latimer spearheaded an effort to restore the wooden castle and griffin atop the tower, which had been battered away by storms over the years. Plans were drawn up, but the effort failed to raise enough funds, and the tower remained without its castle. Lescarbeau, who owns Abcore Restoration and was involved in the effort, estimates it would take $1.5 to $2 million to fully restore. “When these things were built, the people that built them had almost unlimited resources,” he says. Today’s town, he acknowledges, faces a different financial reality, but some residents still dream of a winged guardian presiding over the neighborhood once again. For now, visitors can view the tower’s base at the center of Earles Court, a short walk from the Narragansett Sea Wall.