About Newport Tower
In the middle of Touro Park stands a circular stone structure supported by eight heavy arches. It has no roof, little obvious context, and an origin story that has generated arguments for generations.
The structure is usually called the Newport Tower or Old Stone Mill. One of the strongest pieces of documentary evidence appears in the seventeenth-century will of Governor Benedict Arnold, which refers to his stone-built windmill. Many historians therefore interpret the surviving tower as a colonial-era windmill or structure connected with one.
That explanation has never prevented speculation. Researchers, amateur historians, and enthusiasts have proposed dramatically earlier construction dates and a long list of alternative builders and uses. Archaeological investigations and historical studies have tested those claims without producing universal agreement among everyone attracted to the mystery.
The tower stands outdoors in a public park and can be viewed without entering a building. Visitors should treat it as an archaeological and historical structure rather than climbing on the masonry. The strangest part is not that an old stone mill survives. It is that such a compact ruin has managed to keep people arguing for centuries.