Plaster Under the Newport Tower

Extract

Was the round stone tower in Newport, Rhode Island, built by the Colonists in the seventeenth century, or by the Norsemen in an earlier century? If the tower is of Colonial origin it is of interest only to local historians. If built as the beginning of a fortified Norse church before the time of Columbus, the tower is a priceless heritage of importance to all Americans.

An architectural feature of the tower which impresses the beholder is that it stands on eight columns. These mortared columns are a trifle over 3 feet in diameter. Each column rests upon a large circular stone about 3 feet 8 inches in diameter and about 8 inches thick ( 1 ). The architectural term for such a base stone is plinth. The bottom of a plinth is normally at the floor level. Since the Newport tower had no groundlevel pavement, it seems fair to assume that the builders intended that the bottoms of the plinths would appear to rest upon the surface of the ground, as they appear to do today. Actually, the plinths rest upon column foundations going down to more than 4 feet below the surface (2, 3, 4).