Chautauqua Tower

Chautauqua Tower
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Chautauqua Tower, September 2011
Location	Glen Echo Park, Glen Echo, Maryland
Coordinates
Area	0.1 acres (0.040 ha)
Built	1891 (1891)
Architect	Mindelef, Victor
Architectural style	Late Victorian
NRHP Reference #	80000350
Added to NRHP	July 4, 1980

The Chautauqua Tower is located at Glen Echo Park in Montgomery County, Maryland, USA. It is a Richardsonian Romanesque circular structure of irregularly shaped, rough-faced stone, dominating the central entrance to the park. Construction of the tower was started in either 1890 or 1891, it was completed in 1892, and is approximately 34 feet in diameter and three stories high, capped by an 11-sided roof of steep pitch with a flagpole rising from its peak. It is the sole intact physical remnant of the late-19th century Chautauqua movement at Glen Echo, Maryland, and as a local specimen of late-Victorian rustic architecture.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

The tower was originally part of a large complex of buildings at the entrance of the Glen Echo Chautauqua. The National Register of Historic Places nomination form correctly identifies the architect, Victor Mindeleff, but misspells his name. Mindeleff is best known for his work with the Bureau of American Ethnology.

Currently, the Tower is the studio of Artist in Residence J. Jordan Bruns. The first floor is also used as studio space by artists on a monthly basis.

Gallery

• GE-Tower.gif

  The Chatauqua Tower at Glen Echo

External links

• Chautauqua Tower, Montgomery County, Inventory No.: M: 35-26, including photo in 2003, at Maryland Historical Trust website
• Glen Echo Park - A History page National Park Service archived page
• Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) No. MD-1080-D, "Glen Echo Park, Chautauqua Tower, 7300 McArthur Boulevard, Glen Echo, Montgomery County, MD", 18 photos, 1 color transparency, 6 measured drawings, 30 data pages, 3 photo caption pages