Frenchman’s Tower on Old Page Mill Road in Palo Alto is a doorless red brick folly built in 1875 by Frenchman Paulin Caperon, also known as Peter Coutts. Now empty, with windows bricked-up after years of vandalism, the tower reportedly once housed his library on the first floor and a water tank on the second floor for irrigation. The land is now owned by Stanford University, and a nearby plaque reads:
Built by Peter Coutts as part of irrigation system begun in 1875. Declared County and State “Point of Interest” – 1969
