It was a brilliant idea, literally and figuratively. Awestruck residents admired it. Scientists praised it. Newspapers and magazines glorified it.
The tower would come to symbolize the city.
Paris and the Eiffel?
No, this was San Jose and its Electric Light Tower, a scientific marvel built several years earlier that put the Bay Area city on the international map, proving that innovation in this part of the world didn’t start with Silicon Valley’s chipmakers.
The 237-foot-tall landmark constructed in 1881 was the brainchild of San Jose Mercury publisher J.J. Owen, who was inspired by San Francisco’s municipal lighting. His project, however, would be a “moonlight tower,” one structure that would illuminate all of downtown.
And it did — for 34 years.
San Jose’s Electric Light tower was built at the intersection of Santa Clara and Market Streets in 1881. It was the idea of J. J. Owen, the editor of the San Jose Mercury. The 237-foot tower was supposed to light the entire downtown area. (Photograph courtesy of the Saratoga Historical Foundation)
According to a Sacramento Daily Union article, Owen estimated it would take three such towers to light the whole of San Jose, then just a fraction of its current 180 square miles. “Mr. Owen deserves great credit for the sagacity and energy he has displayed in this undertaking, and San Jose ought to be proud of him,” the paper said.
Not all were as impressed. Farmers from as far away as Los Gatos and Morgan Hill reportedly claimed the light emanating from Market and Santa Clara streets kept their chickens awake at night, adversely affecting the egg output.
In 1915, a storm toppled the structure, just as a civic effort to restore the by-then dilapidated tower was getting underway.
But the achievement still stands tall, thanks to History San Jose, the keeper of the city’s cultural heritage and history. A half-size replica of the tower, donated by the San Jose Real Estate Board, was erected in 1977 at History Park. Visitors can see the symbolic icon illuminated during special nighttime events and this upcoming holiday season.
In the century-plus since its collapse, history buffs have wondered whether San Jose’s monument to progress could have been the inspiration for Paris’ famous tower, which was built eight years later, in 1889.
San Jose light tower replica on display at San Jose’s History Park. (Photo by Patrick Tehan/Mercury News File)
Filmmaker Thomas Wohlmut sought to explore that notion, researching for years and making fact-finding trips to France.
His 2019 documentary, “The Light Between Two Towers,” debunked the rumor of a Gustave Eiffel visit to San Jose, but the film makes a convincing case that the French engineers who designed the Paris landmark would have been very aware of the San Jose Light Tower.
At the time, the tower was celebrated as an engineering and electrical achievement in Scientific American as well as newspapers around the country and the world.
“From the engineers that I spoke with in Europe, they clearly say that engineers start with something someone else has made and try to make it better,” he said in a 2019 interview. “So it’s entirely logical that they would start with our tower — not use it, not copy it — but begin the design process with something that works and was world famous.”
In recent years, civic leaders in San Jose seriously considered erecting another light tower downtown to give Silicon Valley a new landmark. But the group that formed to explore the idea, the San Jose Light Tower Corp., found that a light tower doesn’t carry as much cachet with potential investors and the public these days as a more modern statement piece.
So an artistic competition was held, with scores of designs in the running. The favored installation, “Breeze of Innovation,” will be filled with motion. Though development is stalled, the artwork, with 500 swaying rods, has one thing in common with San Jose’s famous tower:
It’s designed to generate electricity.
Details: San Jose’s History Park, 635 Phelan Ave., will illuminate the light tower during this year’s holiday drive-through, which runs from Nov. 21 to Jan. 1. Find ticket information on the holiday events at www.christmasinthepark.com. Learn more about History Park at https://historysanjose.org.