San Jose electric light tower

It was featured in an article in Harper's Weekly[6] and was praised in La Lumière Électrique, a French electrical journal.

A newspaper in Santa Barbara, California called it "a complete success" and "the favorite electric tower of the world".

[10] It has been argued that its design influenced that of the Eiffel Tower, which was built eight years later; in 1989 the City of San Jose sued in a mock trial the estate of Gustave Eiffel and the City of Paris for copyright infringement of the San Jose design, the mock trial judge - Marcel Poche - at the University of Santa Clara determining that the idea in Paris had emerged independently.

This occurred on a Sunday, when it was then illegal under California law to serve an injunction, so just before midnight the manager and vice president of the Electric Lighting Company went to the tower and rewired it themselves, in stormy weather.

[18] The legal struggle continued for several years, during which time the tower had a further six arc lamps added, plus small lights on the beams.

In February 1900, San Jose Light and Power declared their intention to sell the tower back to the city, which by that time had not been lit for a year following the dispute with Electric Improvement.

A Tower Committee raised $6,100 to repair it, and a platform had been built under it and it was to have additional bracing added,[23] but before work could begin, on December 3, 56 mph (90 km/h) winds destroyed it.

[7][13] By 2018, plans had changed and the San Jose Light Tower Project had dropped the idea of reconstructing the Owen Light Tower, choosing instead to focus on a landmark structure at Guadalupe River Park at a maximum height of 115 to 220 feet (35 to 67 m), depending on its final location.

[28] In March 2019 the San Jose Light Tower Corporation announced plans for a competition to determine the nature of this landmark.

[39] Two stairs and one elevator allow visitors entry into the structure, and a continuous ramped path 1,900 feet (580 m) long is provided, terminating at a viewing platform.