The Jenny Lind Tower is a stone tower located in

North Truro, Massachusetts North Truro is a village in the town of Truro, Massachusetts, United States. Due to its proximity to urbanized Provincetown, it is somewhat more densely developed than the rest of the town, with houses and small resort facilities lining the t ...

. 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 Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

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 North Truro Air Force Station (AFS) is a closed United States Air Force General Surveillance Radar station. It is located east of North Truro, Massachusetts. Most of the site was inactivated by 1994 and turned over to the National Park Servi ...

. It is seventy feet tall.

History

Fitchburg Railroad terminal from stereo card

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

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 The Cape Cod National Seashore (CCNS), created on August 7, 1961, by President John F. Kennedy, encompasses on Cape Cod, in Massachusetts. It includes ponds, woods and beachfront of the Atlantic coastal pine barrens ecoregion. The CCNS includ ...

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 The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...

radar facility on land that is part of the old

Legend behind the name

A common myth surrounding the naming of the tower is that on the night of her performance, Jenny Lind climbed the tower and sang to the public. While this has not been proven false, newspaper reports of the time do not mention any sort of performance by her to the public below. It is also rumored that Henry Aldrich was an admirer of her, hence the reason that he moved the tower to his land despite not being born for another 17 years. In ''A Pilgrim Returns to Cape Cod'' (1946), the historian

Edward Rowe Snow Edward Rowe Snow (August 22, 1902 Winthrop, Massachusetts – April 10, 1982 Boston, Massachusetts) was an American writer and historian. Life He was the son of Edward Sumpter and Alice Nichsols (Rowe) Snow. He graduated from Harvard University ...

made the myth more attractive by stating, "There are those who like to believe that because an Aldrich family member was captivated by Jenny's voice, this caused them to decide to move the tower to their land in

Truro, Massachusetts Truro is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, comprising two villages: Truro and North Truro. Located slightly more than 100 miles (160 km) by road from Boston, it is a summer vacation community just south of the no ...

." He went on to undermine the myth by stating that Aldrich's son later told him that Lind's performance did not motivate his father to move the tower to the Cape. It is because of this myth that the legend of the tower lives on in local lore. Local stories passed down for 300 years say that the ghost of Goody Hallett - known as "the Witch of Wellfleet", "the Sea Witch of Eastham", and "the Red Heeled Witch", and was the lover of

Samuel Bellamy Captain Samuel Bellamy ( c. 23 February, 1689 – 26 April 1717), later known as "Black Sam" Bellamy, was an English sailor, turned pirate, who operated in the early 18th century. He is best known as the wealthiest pirate in recorded history, an ...

, captain of the

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

ship ''

Whydah Gally ''Whydah Gally'' (commonly known simply as the ''Whydah'') was a fully rigged galley ship that was originally built as a passenger, cargo, and slave ship. On the return leg of her maiden voyage of the triangle trade, ''Whydah Gally'' was capt ...

'' - haunts the woods of

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro ...

and Wellfleet in central Cape Cod. Her

banshee A banshee ( ; Modern Irish , from sga, ben síde , "woman of the fairy mound" or "fairy woman") is a female spirit in Irish folklore who heralds the death of a family member, usually by screaming, wailing, shrieking, or keening. Her name i ...

screams can be heard at sunset from the cliffs of Wellfleet as she curses the passing ships to cause them to wreck there as her lover Sam Bellamy did in 1717. Legends say that when Goody Hallett begins her haunting, the ghost of Jenny Lind once again ascends the tower to sing, and the beauty of her nightingale song repels Goody and frightens her away.''Bellamy's Bride: The Search for Maria Hallett of Cape Cod'', 2010, Kathleen Brunelle; ''Handbook of Cape Cod Legends'', 2009, Dr. Jim Cunningham; ''1812'', 1912, Michael Fitzgerald; ''The Narrow Land: Folk Chronicles of Old Cape Cod'', 1934, Dr. Elizabeth Reynard; ''The Mutinous Wind: A Tale of Old Cape Cod, of Black Sam Bellamy and His Pirate Ship Whidah, of the Mischievous Sand Dobbies, and of Mistress Maria Halett the Sea Witch of Eastham'', 1938, Dr. Elizabeth Reynard; ''The Mutinous Wind'', 1939 motion picture, Columbia Pictures; ''Master of the Sweet Trade: A Story of the Pirate Samuel Bellamy, Mariah Hallett, and the Whydah'', 2008, Elizabeth Moisan; ''The Old Cape House'', 2014, Barbara Eppich Struna; ''The Old Cape Teapot'', 2014, Barbara Eppich Struna; ''House Call to the Past'', 2005, Janet Elaine Smith, ''Port Call to the Future'', 2012, Janet Elaine Smith; ''Cape Cod'',1865, Henry David Thoreau

References

External links

A Youtube video of the tower by the Cape Cod Times
{{authority control Reportedly haunted locations in Massachusetts Cape Cod National Seashore Jenny Lind Towers in Massachusetts Truro, Massachusetts