page_title: Jenny Lind Tower
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Jenny Lind Tower / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The Fitchburg Railroad terminal in Boston, likely in the 1870s. The image has been cropped from a stereo card, with some sky areas computer-generated to fill in rounded corners.
context_page_description: The Jenny Lind Tower is a stone tower located in North Truro, Massachusetts. It is named after the 19th-century opera singer Jenny Lind, who is rumored to have climbed the tower when it was located in Boston to prevent a riot among people who were unable to attend her concert. It is located roughly between the Highland Light lighthouse and North Truro Air Force Station. It is seventy feet tall.
context_section_description: The tower, resembling a castle's battlement, was once part of the original circa 1845 Fitchburg Railroad depot in Boston; later (1900-1927) owned by the Boston and Maine Railroad which took over the Fitchburg in 1900. In 1850, the opera singer Jenny Lind sang in the auditorium above the station. The concert was oversold and many people were unable to get in. Soon after, she had to cut her performance short after fans began to crash the gates. P. T. Barnum was the publicist for Lind and it is possible that he created the legend behind the name.
  In 1927, the station was being torn down. The lawyer Henry M. Aldrich, connected with the railroad, had the tower dismantled and transported to land in North Truro, Massachusetts of which he bought one hundred acres from a local named Mort Small. Erection of the tower took more than two months and involved the labor of five men. He also erected five cottages on the land, but left no reasoning for the erection of the tower.
  The Cape Cod National Seashore obtained the deed for the tower in 1961; it was donated by Aldrich's daughter-in-law. There are no roads to the tower, although it is fairly close to a road that goes to a Federal Aviation Administration radar facility on land that is part of the old North Truro Air Force Station.
caption: The Fitchburg Railroad station in Boston with the two towers
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